Congratulations, You've Got Mail
by Many A Mistake
Summary: Robbie gets an unexpected gift. There's no receipt for this one. A quiet day in Lazytown is suspicious enough, but when Robbie hears about a little penpal project for the kids, he might not get another quiet day ever again. Sending responsibility through the mail should be illegal.
1. Chapter 1

It was quiet in Lazytown.

The sun hung idly overhead, not so much as a breeze coming through to rustle the tree branches. The birds were all lulled to sleep in the midday summer haze, leaving the air still and blessedly silent. It was a perfect day to lie down and do nothing, a perfect day to nap and stay in doors and it seemed like the entire town had taken that idea on board.

It was perfectly lazy in lazyto-

Hold on, that didn't seem right.

Robbie stilled. Hands clenching his blanket tight as he waited for the illusion of calmness to pass. Waited for the thud of too many children's feet rushing around over his head, for the sound of laughter too early in the day, for the annoyance to begin anew. He waited, eyes flicking back and forth as he scanned the cavernous ceiling above him, just waiting for the moment it all started up again.

Nothing.

Violently Robbie threw himself into motion. Vaulting out of his orange comfort chair and out onto the hard metal of the lair floor. For a man so consistently exhausted and aching in every conceivable way – he could be quite spritely when the need presented itself. And often when it did not.

He was suspicious of the silence. Didn't trust the moment of quiet anymore than he trusted Sportaflop to keep his nose out of his business.

Determined to see exactly what was going on above his own head, Robbie clambered up onto the second landing and called down the periscope. It was a good day and the device narrowly missed knocking him on the head this time. Tomorrow he might not be quite so lucky.

Peering through the device, squinting out of habit, Robbie began looking around for any sign of those brats. Not in the park, well that was something at least. The school was shut up for the weekend, no luck there. Each of the children's houses were empty as well. They weren't by the mayor's office either. Where on earth were those blasted children?

For a second Robbie worried that they might have decided to skip town again. But no. He was quick to reassure himself, they'd promised to at least leave a note if they were going out of town again. Those do gooders were all about keeping promises and all that nonsense, he had nothing to worry about.

Not that he was worried of course.

Just about to give up and assume that they'd all finally dropped from eating too much sportscandy, Robbie was about ready to haul himself up there and take a look for himself when he finally spotted one of them.

"It's the pink one!" Robbie exclaimed, the periscope sliding closer to the child. Stephanie wasn't terribly active, much to Robbie's sincere relief, but he couldn't quite tell what she _was_ doing.

The young girl was laid out flat on the warmed cement of the road. There were no cars in Lazytown to worry about except for Stingy's and he was slow enough a driver to avoid. Not to mention he usually made quite the show of dragging that little car of his through town. Stephanie wouldn't be taken by surprise if he came puttering along.

It took some maneuvering and Robbie very nearly fell off the steps to the platform in his efforts to get the periscope into position, but eventually eh could make out the pen in the girl's hand. It hovered uncertainly above a presently blank piece of paper. Writing? Well it was not the worst activity he'd ever found one of the children doing. It was certainly one of the quietest. Not the worst by far.

And yet Robbie still found himself hesitant to accept that was all she was doing. It felt too easy.

Idly kicking her feet up and down, Stephanie continued thinking about what she was going to write, wholly unaware of the ridiculous periscope eyes on her.

She was having some trouble with this one. Writing a letter certainly hadn't sounded difficult at the time and she'd written her fair share of letters to Sportacus's airship, but this wasn't turning out to be very easy at all. The intent was there but the words just weren't coming to her.

Frustrated Stephanie let her gaze slip upward. She thought about sending for help. Sportacus had never failed to come down when asked, even when there wasn't, strictly speaking, any trouble. He also always seemed able to offer assistance; Stephanie doubted there was anything that Sportacus couldn't do.

Helping her write a letter was hardly a stretch.

Still Stephanie hesitated. Partly because she didn't want to bother Sportacus with something so mundane, and partly because it didn't seem like anyone else was having trouble with this. Stephanie was new to this little exchange of theirs, but surely the other kids hadn't struggled this much.

Speak of the devil…devils.

Stephanie glanced up as the sound of four separate sets of feet came pounding down the path towards her, and much to Stephanie's dismay, each child held a sealed envelope.

"Stephanie, Stephanie!" Ziggy cried excitedly, waving his poorly taped up letter as he approached the older girl. "Have you got your letter written, huh? Huh?"

Smiling tightly Stephanie tried not to let it show how badly she'd done. She knew it was wrong of her to pretend but Stephanie didn't want the other children to think she'd failed at something. But the blank letter under her hands was rather telling.

"My letter is clearly the best." Stingy asserted with a stiff nod. "My pen-pal will be the happiest."

"No way." Trixie huffed, holding her own letter tight to her chest. Even from this distance Stephanie could see how poor Trixie's penmanship way. "You wrote all about yourself."

"Exactly!"

While the children began to chatter about what they'd all written into their letters, Stephanie felt her heart growing heavier with every word. Pixel, not having said anything yet took notice and cautiously approached her.

"Having trouble?" Stephanie felt the urge to protest well up in her. Felt the reflexive need to assure Pixel that everything was fine. But after the initial impulse simmered down, Stephanie once again looked crestfallen.

"It's okay to ask for help sometimes when you're in trouble." She reminded herself sullenly and showed the blank page to Pixel. "And I am having a little trouble."

There was no reason to be surprised when immediately her friends attempted to help. There was a bit of teasing from Trixie but each of the children began to offer up suggestions. What would a pen-pal like to hear? How to start? What was too much, what was too little? Before long she had more suggestions than she knew what to do with and half of them were completely unusable due to them being tailored specifically to the other children's likes and dislikes.

Not a single one of the children saw the periscope popping up over the other side of a nearby wall, or the way it narrowed in on the letters. Underground Robbie was baffled, they were writing letters? There was something there to get frustrated over but honestly given their usual activities being so much rowdier.

"Bah! How hard can it be?" Robbie remarked to himself, whipping away from the periscope, scowling back at it and by extension the children. "I could write a great letter- no! The _best_ letter!" Chuckling to himself Robbie marched away from the viewing area to search for something to write on.

He dug through piles of abandoned trinkets and gadgets, none of which made good pens. What he eventually came across was a bundle of unused purple papers, left blank thankfully, and an old pen. Inside it the ink capsule had exploded, coating the once clear plastic in black gunge. But when he scribbled against his palm some ink came out and so Robbie shrugged and decided it would have to do.

Satisfied Robbie took himself back to his favourite spot on the couch, settled in and set the pen to paper…then nothing.

"Hm. How about—no, no." Robbie tried again but the words weren't coming. What did people write in letters? Robbie hadn't written one is such a long time… "Well maybe…argh!"

Throwing his hands up, paper and all, Robbie let out a furious huff and began to sulk. "How can anyone be expected to use letters anymore? It's the modern age!" While he ranted off excuses, up above the children's voices began to once again catch his attention. Specifically one word.

"Sportacus!"

Robbie leapt right back out of his chair and flew back to the periscope. Sure enough those brats were hustling towards the launcher, no doubt to shoot off a message to that flipping buffoon. Robbie could only watch as they stuffed the request inside and set it hurtling up into the sky.

Grimacing, Robbie begrudgingly head upwards. If Sportaloser was going to come down then Robbie had best be up there. Not to hear whatever ridiculous advice he might offer the children of course. That would be ridiculous. He was simply going up for a better vantage point.

That was the story he told himself every single rung out of the lair.

Up on Sportacus's airship, the day had been just as quiet as Robbie's. But rather than finding the silence a suspicious relief the slightly above average hero had found it to be more monotonous. He'd spent time laying out a healthy assortment of sportscandy for every important meal of the day, cleaning and arranging the few of his belongings that had managed to leave their proper places, and of course going through a few standard exercises.

It kept him limbered up and ready should trouble break out, but today hadn't seen one kitten trapped in a tree or hazardous placement of a skateboard. Leaving Sportacus to his own devices.

When the computer announced that he had mail, Sportacus couldn't have been more thrilled. Cautiously optimistic, but thrilled none the less. "I've got mail!" He was not surprised to see it was from the children and judging by the smooth writing it was from Stephanie. They didn't say it was urgent but it seemed purposefully vague. Hoping this was a good thing Sportacus called for the door and made his way down to the town.

The moment his feet landed on the ground, Sportacus bounced. It was a reflex he hadn't grown out of and without thinking much of it Sportacus flipped up onto his hands while calling out. "What seems to be the trouble?"

Stephanie and the kids never seemed to adjust to his sudden appearances and even upside down he could see perfectly the moment they realised it was him and their faces lit up. In response Sportacus smiled back. The kid's happiness was infectious and it seemed that none of them were in any immediate danger.

Of course had they really been in danger the crystal would have been going off long before the letter reached him.

"You're going to need your hands for this." Trixie pointed out and it genuinely took Sportacus a moment to figure out what she meant.

"Oh! Right." Sheepishly looking at his hands still planted above his head on the ground, Sportacus gave another simple flip and landed back up on his feet. "So what are we doing?"

Honestly had the children just called him down to play Sportacus wouldn't have protested it. Sometimes it surprised him how much the kids just wanted him to join in their festivities, and admittedly it was also rather heart-warming. But he was a hero first, so usually the job came long before playing games.

"We're writing our pen-pals letters." Stingy told him only for Ziggy to break in and add.

"But Stephanie hasn't written anything yet!"

Looking over at Stephaine, Sportacus could see her beginning to clamp up. Embarrassed and feeling a little guilty for having made such a big deal about it, there was every chance she would abandon this new idea just to avoid the situation.

"I think that's a great idea! Making friends in other places is a wonderful thing to do." He encouraged quickly. "Even if it's a little difficult at first, you'll get the hang of it. Come on, we'll help you figure out what to say first. Starting a conversation is the hardest part."

Now Sportacus was sure he'd said the right thing because Stephanie's smile made a nervous return and her eyes began to shine with all the possibilities. Really he hadn't been sending letters himself in years and all those he had sent came extremely easy to him because most were, for lack of a better term, work related.

He meant what he'd said, getting into contract with people outside of Lazytown opened up all sorts of opportunities for the kids.

"If it helps." He began, only slightly less enthusiastic. "I'll write a letter as well. Then we can all send one."

This got the children positively buzzing with excitement and Stephanie's timid smile had once again turned into a full blown beaming grin. That alone was enough to convince Sportacus to get the old writing equipment back out.

Although, while he was always more than happy to help them, Sportacus knew this was going to be one of the more difficult ones. If only because it required he not move around as much. Still he was sure he could manage…at least for a little while. For the kids.

Sportacus and the kids settled down outside on the grass, deeming it too nice a day to do this indoors, and began to chat about their letters. It also allowed Sportacus to keep moving in small ways, a few push-ups or sit-ups were not deemed too distracting from their activities.

Besides Stephanie the others all seemed to know exactly what they wanted to say but Sportacus had to break in once or twice to remind them to ask questions to their friends receiving the letters, or offer up a little bit more to work off. Stingy could get too bogged down in things about himself, Pixel too excited about the newest technology to allow for someone else's hobbies, and Trixie had the strangest habit of acting like she didn't want to be writing the letter at all when it was obvious she was very excited. Stephaine put that behaviour down to a pride problem.

Ziggy was perhaps the most well suited to writing letters, showing ample interest in the receivers life and offering up enough of his own to be genuine. Sportacus turned to Ziggy most often when searching for ideas for Stephanie's letter.

In the end they'd managed to work out a few basic things to say. Hello being the most important, moving on to a little description of how they felt about sending the letter before talking a little about themselves and Lazytown. Little, being the difficult part for some of the children. Then finally asking about the other child and their life in…

"Hey," Sportacus spoke up, breaking away from his push-ups for a moment to ask what he should have asked a while ago. "where exactly are we sending these letters anyway?"

According to Pixel they'd been in contact with these pen-pal friends of theirs for some time now. But Stephaine was new in town and it hadn't even crossed their minds until earlier that week in school when their answering letters came back and Stephaine was left without one. Sportacus hadn't heard of it either, but he supposed it was a fairly personal thing for most of them.

"Oh!" Trxie was the one that answered. "It goes over to our…um what was it called…our sister school." She explained, taking a moment to remember the terminology.

Sportacus stopped moving.

"Sister school?" He repeated. That made sense but usually that meant it would be in their sister town as well. But certainly they didn't mean—

"Yeah, over in Busy City!" Ziggy exclaimed and Sportacus's smile dimmed just slightly.

It was such a small reaction that he was sure the children didn't notice it, but to Sportacus feeling a mood drop of any kind was rather startling.

"Who are you going to send your letter to, Sportacus?" Ziggy continued, startling the hero for a moment.

Making good on his word Sportacus had written a letter along with the other children. It was an entirely inoffensive thing and he'd made it more as an example as opposed to an actual letter he planned on sending but knowing now that these were headed for Busy City…

"Well I think I'll just hold onto it for a little while." He announced, much to the children's surprise and eventual protest. "I haven't got a pen pal set up, maybe I'll ask the mayor next time around."

It was a flimsy excuse and one that bordered on being a fib. The kids didn't look sold on it either. It was a genuine relief when his crystal came to life, beeping shrilly and demanding his attention.

"Someone's in trouble!" And if that didn't sound like an exclamation of relief… "Sorry kids I got to go."

Sportacus couldn't flip out of there fast enough.

The trouble, as it turns out, was Robbie. Hardly shocking considering most of the residents of Lazytown had been with Sportacus only moments ago. Still when he found himself approaching a very stuck looking Robbie only a short distance from where he and the children had been writing, Sportacus couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Robbie hadn't been up to anything in particular that day. Sportacus hadn't seen any unexplained new people appearing in Lazytown, as they so often did whenever Robbie had a scheme going. Nothing was going array and besides that small lapse in comfort back with the children, everything had been going smoothly.

And yet there Robbie was, stuck up on a high branch with what looked like binoculars clutched tightly to his chest. Spying was it?

"Robbie." Sportacus called from under the tree, smiling brightly even as the man in question scowled down at him. Robbie quickly regretted taking the effort to glare because it also reminded him of just how high up he was and he was once again clinging to the tree trunk for dear life. "You really must stop climbing trees, Robbie."

"Go away!" Robbie shouted, trying to shoo Sportacus. "I don't need your help." Then the branch Robbie was on bounced and the man let out a shrill scream, curling up against the base of the tree. Help was exactly what he needed.

"Just get me down!" Robbie snarled, shaking like a leaf.

"You got yourself up there." Sportacus reminded him, hoping that maybe this time Robbie would realise that all he had to do was jump down. He really wasn't up that high. He didn't mean for the words to sound snide but Robbie clearly took them that way.

"You elves…" Robbie was muttering furiously to himself and Sportacus patiently waited for the man to be done with his ravings.

"I'll catch you." He offered, arms held out. Robbie looked at him like he was a snake, just waiting for his chance to bite. But he'd already been caught and saved and carried so many times by Sportacus, he ought to have been used to it by now. "Come on Robbie. I promise I'll catch you."

Again there was that look. Robbie staring down at him like he was something foul but as the moments stretched on, it seemed Robbie was gradually leaning towards trusting Sportacus. Which might not have been a first in itself, but it would be the first time he actually consciousnessly chose to trust the hero.

Which is why of course the branch chose that precise moment to snap.

Robbie screamed, the branch gave away and Sportacus vaulted up and off of a nearby wall to leap up and catch the mess of limbs that was Robbie before he could meet painfully with the ground.

It was instinctual by now that the villain would wind himself up in Sportacus's arms, curling into his chest like a terrified child. It was the only way Sportacus could actually hold Robbie, the man being so much taller than he was. With Robbie once again safely nestled in his arms and once again on solid ground, Sportacus could breathe a sigh of relief and the crystal cooled down in its frame.

"You're on the ground now Robbie." Sportacus informed the villain simply, seeing as Robbie still seemed to think he was in danger.

Robbie whipped his head up, looked at the ground, looked at the tree, looked at Sportacus… "I knew that."

Rolling his eyes with an amused smile, Sportacus allowed Robbie to wiggle his way out of his arms. Robbie made a big show of huffing and straightening out his vest before stalking off without another word. Sportacus watched him go, thinking that he looked rather flustered.

It did trouble Sportacus sometimes, knowing how poorly Robbie looked after himself. The children had himself and the other adults to keep an eye on them, but Robbie was supposed to be taking care of himself and he didn't seem to be all that good at it. Of course, offering to help Robbie would likely result in the man being insulted by the insinuation that he was a child.

Sportacus still did not know what it was Robbie had been up to in the first place that got him into that tree. But it was getting late into the evening and Robbie didn't tend to kick up too much grief at night, so perhaps today just wasn't going to be one of the villain's days.

He didn't return to the children that day, not wanting to risk anymore questions about the letters. Instead he kept an eye on them form afar and only returned to the airship once it started to near night time. The kids got their letters all handed over to the mayor who would go about sending them on to the principal of the school they were in contact with.

Although Sportacus did genuinely believe what they were doing was a good thing, he hadn't realised that it would be Busy City or they they'd want him to send one too.

Feeling a little guilty for having so obviously bailed on the children, Sportacus found himself looking down at the mock-up letter he'd written. It was so friendly and open, nothing like the letters he'd previously sent to Busy City. He couldn't tell the children that he'd already written there, that he already knew someone to write to.

That he didn't _want_ to write to them.

As a result the mock up letter he'd written got placed away inside one of the compartments around the airship. It felt wrong to throw it out after having spent time making it with the kids, but there was nothing else to do with it. Maybe in a few years he'd open up the compartment again and be reminded of the day, it would make a nice little memento of his time with the kids.

Which meant that he could forget all talk of Busy City. His crystal wouldn't glow for a place so far away unless there was really big trouble and even then, Sportacus was confident he was not the hero to deal with it. Busy City fell out of his district, which had been perfectly fine with him for years now. Lazytown was constantly in need of help after all, he was not lacking people to save or things to do.

He hadn't had to think about or travel to Busy City for years now and Sportacus had no intentions of changing that. He was perfectly happy here with the kids.

Satisfied with that Sportacus prepared for an early night. Just like every other night, eight past eight on the dot.

…  
…

"So they want to write to silly little love letters to brats over in Busy City, do they?" Robbie huffed, pacing the length of the lair once or twice.

He should have been satisfied that he'd had a whole day without the noise of the children pestering him, ignoring the little misadventure he'd had, and yet he just couldn't. He felt far too apprehensive about the whole thing. He'd been living with this ridiculousness for too long, now he couldn't accept even the smallest sliver of respite from it all.

How bad could it possibly be? Writing letters was a wonderfully quiet task and it had even managed to keep Sportacus, mostly, still when he came down to help them. Robbie chose not to think about the ensuing scene that played out when Sportacus found him in the tree. At the end of the day, if it kept the little noisemaker's distracted then Robbie was all for the activity.

Still, it was _Busy City_ they were writing to.

Which meant that his spying would actually be of use, Robbie knew someone to write to in that dreadful place. Always moving, never sleeping – that city was a lost cause that Robbie would rather never set foot in again. A fool's errand to try and make that place lazy, that's what it was. He'd much rather stay here in Lazytown, even with Sportaflop constantly making a joke of the town's name.

But despite knowing someone to write to in that city, Robbie didn't feel much like doing so.

"Why would I send that pompous buffoon anything?" He crowed aloud, as if saying the words louder would somehow chase off the implication that he was bitter after not having heard from the other man in such a bleedingly long time. It wasn't as though Robbie had been waiting for some sort of contact from him for years now. Not at all.

He wasn't bitter.

He _wasn't_.

Maybe just a tinsey, tiny bit.

The thought had lodged itself so deeply into Robbie's head that even once he fell back into his comfort chair, there wasn't a hope of getting to sleep. He knew this feeling, his mind turning too fast, too constantly – chasing away any chance of sleeping that night. He waited, eyes screwed shut as if he could force himself to clock out for a few hours.

When this failed Robbie resorted to counting sheep. An hour passed.

Next he got up to try hot chocolate. Warm milk wasn't an option unless he wanted to gag on it, but hot chocolate was just as passable. Another hour slipped by.

Running out of conventional ideas Robbie tried sleeping in different places all over the lair, even going so far as to try the actual bedroom. It hadn't been out of commission long enough to gather dust but there was a distinct staleness to the air when he pried the door open.

Robbie tried sleeping in a bed, then on his head. No luck, so he moved to the floor and when that made him sore, Robbie propped his feet up against the door. No matter what position he put himself into or how furious his complaints, not a single one was comfortable nor sleep worthy. And a third hour passed.

By the time the fourth hour came creeping in and Robbie was still wide awake with no signs of that changing any time soon, it had already passed over into morning. The particularly early morning hours that felt more like night than they did day. It would be another six of them before the sun even began to peek up over the trees and it was likely that when it did, Robbie would still be awake. Eyes dry, joints stiff and his every imaginable muscle aching.

Then, if the trend continued as it usually did, he'd be awake for the following two days before fatigue finally hit him like a freight train and knocked him out wherever he stood.

It was not shaping up to be his week, and still that _thought_ persisted.

He'd tried not to look at the stationary he'd tossed haphazardly onto the workbench. But every time he tossed and turned, it would be there – staring at him. It was a mockery and his over tired mind suggested that it was intentional. Somehow the children had known about this, somehow they'd planned it. Robbie refused to think otherwise, rationality be damned.

Growling Robbie kicked his blanket off. The mad flailing almost tangling him in it before the blasted thing when flying across the lair floor. Stalking over to the paper Robbie decided that there was only one thing to do about this. He would send a letter and he would pack it full of his frustration and relentless thoughts flying around his head.

Only once it was sent could he sleep. That was his new theory and if the letter turned out to be resentful or harsh – then fine! It was that bastard's own fault for not answering the last one.

The pen scratched away hastily and Robbie nearly wrote the whole thing that way before remembering who was going to read it. Robbie stopped, looked over the near unintelligible chicken scratchings, groaned, and tried again.

Had it been nearly anyone else, he would have left it just like that. But unless he wanted to get a response that simply corrected every single one of his mistakes in penmanship, he had better do it the way they were taught to write.

Replacing Robbie's natural hand was a much smoother motion. The letters curved and flowed smoothly across the page and while Robbie cringed at the fragility and stiffness of the penmanship – he found it was satisfactory. Rusty as he might have been, Robbie hadn't forgotten how to do it properly.

The words were not nearly as delicate as the flow of their writing.

When Robbie was satisfied that the letter was both eloquently made and vicious in its wording, he went about sealing it up. It was only when it came time to address the letter did Robbie pause. He recalled the last three addresses he'd written down for this contact. One of which had – funnily enough – been addressed to the Busy City prison. There was every chance he was back in that same prison cell by now. Which was almost a good enough excuse for his absence, almost.

"If he's moved again…" Robbie snarled under his breath, writing the last known address he had and the last alias he'd caught the villain going by.

It wasn't that he wanted to join in the kid's festivities. That would be absolutely absurd. He just…well he just had to get all the thoughts out of his head and this seemed like an easy way to do it. This was all just a way to finally get some sleep. Nothing more.

Telling himself that all the way across the lair Robbie kept staring at the envelope in his hands, hesitating on posting it.

Small doubts flooded him. Would it get there? What if the address really was wrong or they'd moved again? Worse, what if it _did_ get there.

He imagined it being received and then ignored. The thought was actually a little bit distressing and while Robbie wouldn't admit to it, he didn't want to send a second letter to be ignored.

Curling in on himself slightly, Robbie didn't move for a while. Instead he just held the suddenly fragile seeming letter to his chest. He almost tore it before realising exactly how tightly he was holding it. "It's not important." Robbie told himself quietly. "I hardly care if he gets it or not."

There was no one there to hear him but still Robbie had said it. The words didn't sound any more truthful out loud.

"This is ridiculous!" Robbie announced angrily to himself.

It was like a bandaid in a sense, fast and extremely painful. Robbie forced himself to do it as quickly as he could, jerking open the main slot to a device that was honestly not all that different to the launcher the children used to contact the elf. He didn't fancy going up to use the regular mailbox after all, so this was his solution.

Robbie crammed the envelope inside, slammed the door back shut and shot off the mail in little more than three seconds.

Only after it had shot out of the underground lair and out of his control did the nervousness make a return. When it did, it did so with a vengeance. Robbie felt absolutely no better than he had moments earlier and now he was anxious as well to top it all off.

Out - flipping- standing.

Robbie slumped, hand still lingering on the hatch to the launcher. Now that he'd sent the letter off he had nothing but time to wait and be disappointed when he got no answer. It would be months before the thought fully left his mind again and he'd done it to himself. Beginning his bad mood now that he expected would last until he once again pushed Busy City entirely from his mind, Robbie began to sling back towards his orange couch.

Imagine his surprise when he got mail right that second.

Robbie jumped and screamed as a large box came hurtling down into the middle of the lair. It landed with a heavy thud and Robbie leapt back up onto his chair, back arched and fingers hooked at his stared at the unanticipated arrival.

The box didn't do anything for a few seconds and Robbie's heart gradually returned from to his chest from his throat. He hadn't been expecting that. Cautious, Robbie slowly crept off of the chair and rounded the mysterious box.

As far as an address went it was simply made out to _RR_ , the familiar signature doing little to assure Robbie. He hadn't ordered anything recently and he didn't believe that this could possibly be in response to the letter he'd _just_ sent. But when he looked for a sender, there it was. A near match for his signature,

 _-GG_

He couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense. He'd only just pulled the lever to the launcher and even if the letter had arrived as quickly as Robbie's usually did, surely they couldn't have got all this together…what _was_ this, anyway?

It was quite large and not quite was he was used to getting. It wasn't brown with warning labels; instead it was made of a black smooth wood that seemed a touch expensive for any delivery.

Already suspicious, Robbie balked when he saw that there were holes in the box. Not unlike what he'd seen on animal transport containers. The scale of the thing made him suspicious as well. When he'd ordered Robotacus, it had come in a box about this size. Admittedly a little larger, but not by much.

Then the thing _moved_.

Robbie let out an undignified yelp and toppled backwards. It took a few seconds of mind numbing terror to pass through his system before he realised what he was hearing.

A soft little tapping coming from inside the box. Like someone was tapping a little tune in there. Robbie's heart plummeted, imagining all the horrible things that might have been sent to him. If he opened this thing was he going to regret it? Would he really be sent something that would hurt him?

The tapping certainly did not sound violent, but the fact something was tapping at all was cause enough for alarm. Taking a deep breath, Robbie steeled himself to open it. He'd been sent something and he couldn't just ignore it.

His curiosity was going to get him killed one day, hopefully not this specific day.

It was no easy task trying to remove the lid. It didn't fall open like previous packages had. Instead it too Robbie two heaves and a crowbar to so much as shift the thing. When he did manage to get the lid open a fraction and cram the crowbar into a better position, it took entirely too much strain on his end to pop it the rest of the way off.

The box had been sent to him. Surely it was obvious that he was going to struggle opening the worlds most secure box. Now left irritated, insulted and baffled- Robbie peered back inside of the box and groaned when he saw that the first layer was simply extra protection. Inside was a smaller box with another set of air holes and the addition of padding.

Getting this second lid off was much easier than the first but it did Robbie's blood pressure no favours when he saw what was in that second, much smaller box.

Robbie choked, gaped and desperately rubbed his eyes in the hopes that the tiny human staring up at him from inside the container was not real. Nestled safely under a frankly ridiculous amount of purple and black blankets, surrounded by padding, cushions, what appeared to be one oversized stuffed bear and a grossly oversized purple bow pinned to its chest – was a _child_.

He was going to murder Glanni for this.


	2. Chapter 2

There was some problem with the original upload, it's been fixed))

...

There was no reasonable explanation as to why there was now a tiny person in his lair.

Oh sure. Some people sent their brothers chocolates, or photos, or even small animals. But oh no. Not _his_ brother, his brother was _special_. Robbie's brother deemed it appropriate to send him a small human!

Robbie, being a perfectly reasonable man, initially thought perhaps his older brother had sent him some sort of prank. Which was not actually that farfetched considering it was Glanni behind this, but it seemed that the thing in the box was in fact very much alive and just as real. It was no mock windup doll or cardboard cut out. It couldn't have even been a robot, a robot Robbie could have dealt with.

But nope, it was a warm-blooded creature and it was staring up at Robbie with these huge lilac eyes. He could practically see them brimming with childhood wonder and Robbie almost wretched at the sight.

What had possessed Glanni to send him this? What had posses him to send a child through the _mail_?

Thinking his brother might have needed an intervention before he was murdered, Robbie decided it was high time he actually got into proper contact with the other villain. A letter wasn't going to cut it of course, so he was going to have to call.

Which would have been just fine had he not gotten a machine once he punched the numbers in. The overly polite machine, that felt mocking at that precise moment, cheerily informed Robbie that the number he'd called was no longer in service and Robbie saw red for a few seconds.

They had arrived back at the murder option.

And the little monster was _still_ staring at him.

Robbie could feel its huge baby eyes following him as he ratted about the lair looking for any of his old ways of contacting his brother. Each one he tried ended up being completely useless. Old numbers and emergency numbers alike. Aliases he knew Glanni had ditched years prior were dragged out and a few other phone calls made to people that might have been dealing with the man. Robbie even checked in with the Busy City prison. Still nothing. Turns out Glanni had been out of his favourite cell for quite some time now.

It was as though his brother had evaporated off the face of planet earth after deeming it acceptable to leave a child with Robbie. He would have thought his brother had died or somehow managed to get himself turned into the brat he'd sent, had it not been for one tiny detail.

The bow that had been cheekily pinned to the child, had attached to it a small note. It had taken Robbie a few minutes to calm down enough to actually find it and then a few more to stop from breaking something after having read it.

 _To my dearest little brother._

 _Your big brother Glanni is going away for a while; I really don't have the time to be minding children._  
 _Her mother dumped her on me not too long ago. But you know me; I can't be expected to look after it._  
 _I'm sure you'll do just fine looking after little Gabriella instead._  
 _Do try not to get her killed by being a terrible guardian, she is family after all._

 _P.S. – She's a Glæpur, not a Rotten. I'll liquefy your insides if you try to change that._

 _Lots of love,  
\- Glanni Glæpur_

There were a number of different alarming questions raised by the extraordinarily short note.

First and foremost was the fact his brother had seemingly found the time – and poor sense – to produce a child in the first place. He didn't say who the mother was and it certainly didn't sound like Glanni had any intentions of coming to retrieve the child in the near future.

What was worse was the name.

"That slimy, no good, doubt crossing, bas—" Robbie felt the child's eyes on him again. "Bas-ket case! He took it, he actually did."

Robbie was fuming. Now of course he'd never wanted a brat – not that it seemed to matter to Glanni – but they'd agreed as children that he would have all rights to the name Ella, all variations included! "Should have expected as much from him." Robbie muttered tossing the note over his shoulder grumpily.

"Excuse me."

"Oh lord, it _speaks_."

Robbie cringed as he looked back at the child. It- _she_ , had sat up in her little box and was now looking at Robbie with equal parts confusion and awe. Judging by how small and pudgy she was, the child couldn't have even been five years old and yet she'd made an attempt as saying 'excuse me'.

The words got slurred and came out inelegantly, but she'd tried all the same. Robbie couldn't imagine where she picked that up; excuse me didn't seem like it was in Glanni's vocabulary unless it was slipping out in mockery – where had the kid picked it up?

If she heard Robbie's grumbling, the child didn't react. Perhaps she was too young to yet understand when someone was not so subtly telling them to be quiet. Outstanding.

"Where papa?" Gabriella asked curiously, looking around the lair with alarmingly shrewd eyes for a brat.

That look was actually not all that different to the gleam often present in Glanni's eyes and despite how small she was, Robbie saw some of his brother in her face. Well at least there was little debate as to how true it all was. Glanni hadn't been much of a kidnapper. Oh sure, he'd nicked a kid or two when the need arose, but he never _kept_ them.

"Well clearly not here." Robbie huffed with a vague gesture around the lair, not properly answering the child as he instead vented his frustration.

Still fuming he dropped down into a crouch in front of the kid, the joints in Robbie's legs creaking and cracking in protest at the sudden motion. They'd make just as much fuss when he uncurled to his full height again but for now he still, scowling idly at the little intruder.

What had he done to deserve this?

Gabriella was looking at him again and Robbie was not prepared for the moment she reached out to try and grab his face. Squawking Robbie pulled away but the girl already had a fistful of his formerly immaculately styled hair. Despite his protesting and obvious discomfort, the girl paid him little mind as she tugged at his hair inquisitively.

Then her face broke out into a beaming smile. "Robbie!" She exclaimed leaping up into his chest, winding her tiny arms around his throat and straggling him. Her happy squeals that were supposed to be his name came out more like 'Wobbie' apparently the 'r' still evaded her. Giggling excitedly she clung to his face and no amount of prying seemed to be able to dislodge her.

In the space of two minutes he'd had his hair pulled, been strangled and was now suffocating. A child was going to kill him. He always knew it would come to this.

"Uncle!" She asserted gleefully and Robbie's stomach dropped right into the soles of his shoes.

Oh no. No way. _No._

"Not happening!" Robbie barked, wrenching the girl off his face and none too gently dropping her back into the box. The shrill cry she let out sounded too close to more laughter. She wasn't taking him seriously.

"Nope. Not a chance. Never going to fly. Robbie Rotten does not _babysit_!" He informed her tightly and slammed the lid of the box back down. It wasn't half as neat a packing job as what Glanni had done but he was not about to take pointers from a man that sent a child through the post in the first place.

Robbie had to keep the blasted thing from opening again as the child kept trying to push the lid off again. He wasn't particularly heavy and even as Robbie sat on top of the box, the kid was still able to open it just a crack. He knew he was light simply going off how easily Sportakook carried him around the place all the time, but this was ridiculous!

Looking around wildly for something a little better at keeping the brat inside Robbie ended up diving for the duct tape. What followed was a flurry of movement as Robbie taped up every inch of the box. It was only after going around it at least five times that he found the job to be acceptable.

Heaving the box up under his arm Robbie wheezed finding that the box and child were far too heavy. But it had to be out of his lair and out of his life _tonight_ , so Robbie struggled with the weight all the way to the other side of the lair.

The mail launcher he'd used to send the letter wasn't going to be able to send a box this large off with the same amount of ease. He'd have to make some adjustments and quickly.

Robbie began ratting around the lair, wishing he hadn't organised everything in it only a month earlier. He must have put the older tools way into the back of storage. How could he be expected to have the necessary tools for child transport on hand? He couldn't have possibly known he'd need them.

Frustrated and fighting an increasingly pestering headache, Robbie tried to just focus on his work. He'd need to make the launcher more powerful to allow for a larger package delivery. The width of the package was no problem, he'd sent lightweights this size before, and it was purely the weight of the thing that caused problems.

Throwing himself into his tinkering, Robbie was almost able to forget the box and girl for a few minutes. Building things had that calming effect, but every now and then the thought of the situation would return and Robbie would give a full body shudder.

This was a nightmare.

While he was fiddling with the controls, trying to account for the awkward shape of the box, Robbie distantly noted that the girl wasn't making any sound besides that quiet tapping again. It didn't sound like she was trying to get out so much as tapping a simple four beat rhythm.

The observation momentarily made Robbie pause, hand on the lever to the launcher, which he was going to redub the Returner 4000 once this was all over.

Kids were loud, unruly, disobedient things. He expected more kicking and screaming. Usually the brats would make quite a fuss whenever one of his schemes involved a box or cage. But Gabriella had gone suspiciously silent the moment he taped the lid shut.

Wary of this quiet Robbie slowly, uncertainly, approached the container again. He listened to the girl go through the beat twice more before bringing the back of his knuckles up to the smooth surface of the box and tapping back during one of her pauses. "What are you doing?" He asked, voice coloured with distrust. "You're awful quiet in there."

The air holes weren't covered were they? Robbie quickly checked. No, they were fine. The packaging she'd come in was mostly still inside so she probably wasn't in pain.

While he was looking for some explanation for her subdued behaviour, Gabriella's little voice came through from inside the box.

"Have to be quiet." She told him in a whisper. The words were a little crisper than her attempts at his name and family title, as though she'd practiced them. "Papa said I have to be quiet until I'm out."

"And you listen to him?"

Robbie was mortified. Oh, how lovely! Children would listen to his brother, someone who should _never_ be listened to in the first place, and be quiet when put into a box and shipped from god only knows where. But if he told them to quiet down on a Sunday afternoon so he could nap? No, of course not! That would simply be too much wouldn't it?

Growling under his breath Robbie marched himself back over to the workbench he'd left the writing material on. Now he looked at the paper and pens with a level of disdain usually reserved for Sportaflop. Instead of reaching for a letter or envelope, Robbie instead sifted through all his materials until he found that old label gun of his. But when each new invention needed a label. Now he typically just made up a name on the spot each time he looked at them and if he forgot it later, no problem he'd have another made up for it in no time.

It was just a simple matter of scrawling 'RETURN TO SENDER' on the label and slapping it onto the box after that.

"Alright ladies and gentleman!" Robbie crowed, perhaps throwing a bit too much enthusiasm into the performance as he heaved the box into the Returner 4000's shoot. "Thank you for traveling air Rotten on this fine evening. One-way tickets only of course. Keep hands and legs inside the box at all times and no squirming till you reach your destination."

The lever went down and Robbie felt the moment all his problems for the evening were finally solved.

"Adiós kiddo." Robbie called happily after the box as it went flying out of the lair. Thank god, it was over. Besides the inevitable angry brother he was about to deal with – Robbie felt a massive surge of relief hit him now that the kid was gone.

Imagine it. _Him,_ looking after a _child_. It just wasn't realistic. He wouldn't do it, not now not ever. Glanni had been barking mad to think otherwise.

Chortling to himself Robbie happily flopped back down onto the orange beast of an armchair chair, a new wave of fatigue rolling over him. Who would have guessed it, sending a child via the mail was just what he needed to get some sleep. Perhaps the pink one wouldn't protest too much to being mailed out of town every now and then.

Robbie felt himself beginning to nod off. A little more slowly than his usual hit the cushion and begin snoring routine, but perfectly welcome if it meant his insomnia was going to leave him be for a few hours.

As awareness faded, Robbie's mind idly began to wander.

Thoughts of the box and girl floated inoffensively through his head. Would she be returned home quickly? Would Glanni have the nerve to try and send her back? It wouldn't be too dark in there would it, not too cold either? Probably not, his brother had packed it so full of cushioning that it was likely more comfortable than Robbie's own chair was. He swore he saw something like glow sticks in there as well, so the girl probably wouldn't be trapped in the dark.

He wasn't worrying, these were just idle thoughts. But they did continue to come and go at an alarming rate in his sleepy state. What if the padding wasn't enough and she got hurt being shipped around? Glanni might have damn near welded the box shut but Robbie sent it out with little more than a few rounds of duct tape. Would that hold?

Among the hazy thoughts, that were just shy of concerned, Robbie's mind also helpfully supplied a few more queries. 'Gabriella', how like Glanni. They'd argued over the name Ella countless times and it seemed Glanni thought he could claim it all for himself by adding something with a _G_ onto it. Robbie would never be so childish! He actively refused to even remember that dance competition nonsense.

Despite the constant buzz of thoughts whirling around his head, Robbie was able to gradually drift off into a light sleep. He could never fully dive into unconsciousness and thoughts of that night's events lingered just above the thin layer of sleep he was hiding under. But it was enough. A far cry better than his earlier attempts to sleep.

Hours began to drift on by and Robbie felt more relaxed with every one that did. Things would just go back to normal.

He was fine.

…  
…

Someone was knocking at the lair hatch.

Robbie's eyes shot open, sore and red after only having gotten a maximum of five hours of sleep. Not his worst but most certainly not enough to satisfy him.

Bleary eyed and irritated, Robbie's head swam for a few minutes, unable to make sense of the pounding he was hearing. At first he thought it was nothing more than a migraine coming back to punish him but as clarity returned Robbie realised the sound was external.

The ungodly racket wasn't easing off after a few more minutes of Robbie wishing that who ever had come by would just sod off. But of course no one really came by the lair for no reason, and certainly not just to knock on the hatch.

Vaguely he recalled Sportakook coming to the lair in the past and the children once sent some sort of flying monstrosity down, but those instances were few and far in between. He hadn't _done_ anything recently either. They had no business bothering him.

Grumbling furiously under his breath Robbie dragged himself off the comfort of his chair and forced himself to walk over to the control panel. He called down the periscope with a sluggish clap of his hands.

And it landed on his head.

Cursing Robbie rubbed his skull, feeling where the lump would no doubt form and cast the periscope an accusing glare. He was sure the damn thing did that on purpose – somehow.

This morning…

" _What_?" He snarled as the periscope shot up to look at the unwelcome early morning visitor. "What do you want?"

It was disgustingly sunny outside. Robbie squinted against the harsh light of the morning sun. Another perfect day by the look of it, which meant the kids would eventually come out to play and he'd have to add that nuisance to the long list of things already making his day terrible.

The person standing out front of his lair's supposedly secret opening wasn't anyone he knew. The man was decked out in what looked like a standard uniform and it only took Robbie a few seconds to recognise exactly what type of job this guy had. A mailman.

Looking unimpressed, the worker peered into the periscope, more irritated than surprised by it. Robbie could empathise with that, the mailman was clearly tired and just trying to do his job. Robbie might have understood the man's grumpiness but that didn't mean he was going to go to any great lengths to make his job any easier.

"Robbie Rotten?" He asked dryly. "I got a package for you here."

Then Robbie saw it. Sitting innocently behind the mailman was a box.

 _The_ box.

"I don't want it!" Robbie snapped back, voice rising into a shrill yelp. "Send that thing back where it came from!"

Surprise briefly crossed the man's face. It melted away almost immediately and was quickly replaced by vague frustration. "Look sir, I'm just doing my job here." He explained tiredly. "The box is addressed to you." The implied 'please just take it' echoed in his weary tone. Robbie in turn shook his head furiously, the periscope following the motion.

A sigh dragged out of the man's lungs as he looked between the weird device he was talking to and the box he'd been sent to deliver. No one could just make his life a little bit easier could they?

"I already sent it back." Robbie insisted.

Pondering this for a moment the mailman glanced over the crudely written 'RETURN TO SENDER' label. He'd thought that this was the place it was sent from. "The return address _is_ this address." He explained and heard something that sounded like a strangled cat on the other side of the…eyes. Whatever this thing was.

Glanni that foul prick had planned for this! Robbie was out maneuverer by the cat suit wearing devil. He would have died from the shame of it, were he not currently being fuelled almost entirely by spite.

He'd see Glanni again if it was the last thing he ever did, and when he did, he'd punch him so hard he'd be eating nothing but ice-cream for the rest of his miserable life.

Deciding he'd had more than enough of this, the mailman shrugged helplessly. "Sorry buddy, but it's yours now. I got other houses to get to." He had to get to Bullytown before nightfall and he wasn't going to keep to that schedule if he stayed here to argue with a disembodied voice for hours.

"No wait!" Robbie protested as the man walked off. "Don't ignore me! Hey, come back!" The mailman didn't so much as look back and Robbie found himself genuinely hating a total stranger. "Why does this always happen to _me_?"

It was back. It was actually back.

He couldn't believe it. The universe was playing some sick joke on him surely. First Sportaloon moves into town and now this? What had he done to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment? Being sent children in boxes, the only person less pleased with the situation may have been the child in that cramped little-

Robbie stopped, his wild gestures coming to a complete halt, frozen in an expression of absolute rage.

Gabriella was still in there. There was still a kid in that box.

Abruptly there wasn't much room in his head for all the curses he wanted to send flying. Instead Robbie was crawling out of his lair at a record speed.

If the box was back here and the girl was still inside – would she really be alright? Robbie Rotten might not be a fan of the brats rushing around but he'd never been responsible for any grievous bodily harm to them, certainly never putting them into life threatening positions. If the girl were hurt, or god forbid worse, then Robbie would have more to worry about than a disappointed sports elf.

Shoving the hatch to the lair open as quickly as he could with its considerable weight, Robbie jumped down onto the top of the lair's secret entrance. The box had been left under the billboard and Robbie couldn't hear any tapping. This startled him more than if the girl had been making a fuss inside the container.

"Little girl?" Robbie called nervously tapping on the lid of the box. "Hello? Little box girl? …Gabriella?"

The lid of the box came flying off, whacking Robbie square in the face. Whatever fleeting breath of relief he might have given was quickly squashed by pain and a return of his irritation. Cringing Robbie delicately touched his nose, scared that it was going to be crooked. Thankfully it didn't seem to be broken, bleeding or at an odd angle – just extremely sore.

How did one little girl have such force behind those little legs? Robbie scowled at the useless duct tape. An argument could be made that it wasn't designed for what he'd needed it to do and that it had all night to grow weak. But Robbie had to blame something and right now the duct tape was his only viable option.

"Uncle!" Gabriella was just fine, sitting up in the box with an excited smile plastered on her face. Looking ever so happy to see him again. The expression was so genuinely sunny that Robbie was temporarily blinded by it. Naturally he'd be sent a child that could match Pinkie's beaming grin. "Can I come out of the box now?"

"Why are you asking me?" Robbie groused. "You kids never listen to a word _I_ say."

Gabriella seemed to think this was funny for some reason and snorted in a decided inelegant way of laughing. Did she think he was joking? Did she think he _was_ a joke?

Robbie was just about to snap at the child when he noticed she was still waiting inside the box. She…well look at that, she was actually waiting for his approval. That was new.

Okay. A quick revaluation of the situation.

Cautiously Robbie gathered himself back to his full height. The movement kept purposefully slow as if the girl would suddenly flip if he moved too quickly, but still Gabriella waited with those bright shiny eyes firmly fixed on him. She was genuinely waiting for him to tell her what to do. Robbie was almost so stunned by this that he completely missed the possibilities that came with it.

An idea! Or was it a sneeze? Robbie paused and waited for a few seconds. No, it was definitely an idea this time!

"Gabriella." Robbie began, voice sickly sweet as he addressed the child. "You'll listen to what your…" He shuddered. "…uncle, tells you, right?"

The girl nodded furiously.

"Excellent!" Clapping his hands together, Robbie picked the girl up out of the box and set her down on the ground. She wasn't a particularly heavy child without all the extra padding of her packaging. Once she was back on her own two feet, Robbie gave her a stiff pat on the head before giving her a small push. "Then go away."

Gabriella just looked at him again. "Go on." She wasn't moving anywhere. "Off you go, be free." Robbie encouraged with a flippant wave of his hand.

Then the stubborn look set in. He'd seen it countless times on Pinkie's face and he knew that the girl was about to be trouble. "No!" She huffed stamping her foot down on the ground. "Papa said you'd look after me!"

"Yeah? Well Glanni is a-!" Robbie stopped, calmed himself and tried again. "Your _papa_ , made a mistake." There was a comment on the tip of his tongue about it being one of many but Robbie wasn't going to get anywhere with vinegar this time. Glæpur, and by extension Rotten, children always responded better to sugar.

"You said you'd listen to me. So just run along home now." Robbie had been content to leave it at that, turning back to the little ladder to his lair, but suddenly there was a deadweight around his leg and he knew what it was before he even looked down. "What do you think you're doing?" He barked, scowling down at the child as she clung stubbornly to his leg.

Looking right back up at him with a glare all her own, Gabriella stuck out her tongue with an angry huff. "Papa said to stay with you!"

He was going to kill his brother. He was going to organise it all, right down to the funeral and then he was going to dance on Glanni's damn grave.

"Get off!" Robbie demanded trying to dislodge the child by kicking but her tiny fists only tightened, stretching his favourite pair of pants.

He tried to pull her off but if his hands got too close to her face Gabriella would _bite_. Shaking and kicking did nothing to throw her off and eventually Robbie gave up and decided he'd have to do something else in order to get rid of the child.

To the girl's credit and Robbie's never ending disbelief, she managed to stay clung onto him the whole way back into the lair. The very moment he set foot back inside however she unlatched herself and scurried off into the lair.

"Don't touch anything!" Robbie ordered just as Gabriella plonked herself down on his favourite seat. His only seat actually. "That is not yours." He added grumpily but the girl just gave him the cheekiest smile he'd seen in years. The only other brat that even came close to that sort of expression was the tricky one. Of course none of those children were Glæpurs.

This was preposterous, it was humiliating. He was Robbie Rotten! He had no time for some tiny human to be running around, being noisy, making mess, _playing games_! Absolutely not, he's a villain with standards, no snort nosed brats allowed. But of course, what to do with the child?

Alright, alright…Robbie just had to calm himself down. Had to think straight. He could do this; he just had to find the right way to get rid of the child.

If he couldn't ship her back where she'd come from and he couldn't just tell her to go away, he'd have to get creative. That was fine, Robbie was nothing if not resourceful.

How hard could it be?


	3. Chapter 3

Apparently it was extremely hard to shake a persistent child.

Robbie had opted for simple solutions first. Playing at innocence he decided a leisurely stroll through the town was in order. Gabriella stuck close to him as he left the lair. It took her some time to figure out how to get in and out of the lair without getting herself hurt and Robbie had to slow down once or twice in order for her to catch up.

Once they were topside Robbie was frustrated to find that every little thing about Lazytown seemed to enamour the girl. The open spaces, the fresh air even the funny little curved walls littered around the town. All of it caught her attention and took her fancy.

She found the green grass in particular to be positively marvellous and Robbie had to stop and keep her from going and playing in the mud a few times. They had no time for that; he had to find the best way to loose her in order to get to his afternoon nap on time.

At first Robbie thought that he could simply lose her in the town but he couldn't seem to shake her. Ella was either clinging to his pants or winding herself around his legs. He couldn't go so much as five feet without almost tripping on the underfoot child. So that was no longer a possibility.

Next he thought of a simpler solution. These children loved their silly games, so why not make it a game? "It's called hide-and-seek." He's explained and Gabriella's face had lit up in excitement.

"I know that game! Papa played it with me before I went in the box. We were hiding." She whispered like it was a secret.

"Yes, well this time you'll be hiding and I'll come looking for you. Sounds good doesn't it?" She'd agreed without a second thought. "Well off you go, start counting. No peaking." Gabriella didn't need anymore prompting and quickly rushed over to the nearest tree to cover her eyes. Bouncing excitedly as she began to count loudly.

She stumbled over a few of the numbers and Robbie swore he heard her skip nine entirely. It didn't matter Robbie turned the very moment she started counting and made a b-line for the nearest manhole to jump down. "Remember, high numbers!" Robbie called over his shoulder before making his escape.

The results were not all that great.

He had been back at the lair for all of five minutes, not even able to sit down, before there was a tapping at the hatch. "You're very, very bad at this game!" Gabriella called down. "It's okay, I came back, see?"

Robbie sputtered. "Excuse you missy! I am the master of hide-and-seek!"

Well that hadn't worked. What was next?

If he couldn't lose her, then how about sending her out on regular transport? Robbie almost had it as well, he'd been just about to walk away and leave Gabriella to her one-way trip back to Busy City when the driver called to him. No unattended minors. Right. Perfect. Even when he argued it wasn't his, the driver wouldn't relent until he took Gabriella back off the bus.

Public transport was off the table, well how about private transport? Robbie could send her out on a remote control car or program the shell of robotacus to march her right back to Busy City. This plan got a little father.

Robbie managed to inch down into his chair, ever suspicious and not at all relaxed. He was waiting for the inevitable. Sure enough ten minutes passed before there was that telltale four pattern knock at the hatch.

When he looked through the periscope he found little Gabriella beaming from ear to ear, thinking it was a really fun game to send her out with a robot. And clutched in her tiny fist were a bundle of wires that must have, at one point, served a key role in the machine's design before she ripped them out. Glanni had been absolutely rubbish with gadgets as well, but at the very least he hadn't torn their insides out whenever he got his hands on them.

So machines were out of the question.

Next Robbie tried to convince Gabriella that the cannon was a fun way of transport. But if he tried to place her inside the girl would hiss and snarl, latching onto the mouth of the cannon and refused to be pushed in. Figures, he could get a sports elf in there, but a four year old was too clever for it.

Finally Robbie resorted to calling for help. Perking up to the monotonous answer of; "Metro City day care, how may we help you?"

"Yes it's me…what do you mean who is this? It's Robbie Rotten, I have a child I need to dispose of – so if you could just mind her, say, an indefinite period of time-"

The line had gone dead.

A whole day later and Robbie was no closer to getting the girl taken off his hands than he'd been that morning. The sun was beginning to glow red against the sky and the clouds were all turning pink. Robbie had been so preoccupied trying to find a way to get rid of this little problem that he hadn't even had the time to spy on the kids that day. He didn't know if they'd played outside, or at all. He didn't know if Sportakook had come down from that blimp of his or if there'd been any trouble for them that day.

He'd been far too preoccupied with his own trouble.

What was worse was that every time one of his schemes to ditch the kid took place above ground, she would be distracted by the town all over again. Robbie had been outlining one of his new ideas to send her on her way back home via balloon when he realised she wasn't at his feet anymore. Looking around panicked, Robbie groaned when he found her flat on her back in a patch of long grass, rolling about like a barbarian.

"That's quite enough of that!" Robbie barked, plucking the little girl up out of the grass by the back of her dress in order to stop her from rolling all around in it. Her clothes were going to be an absolute disaster after that display!

"But it's so _green_!" She'd protested when Robbie slung her unceremoniously under his arm and marched away from the patch of grass she'd been frolicking in. "Nothing is green at home!"

"How can I be expected to lose you if you keep getting distracted?" He snapped back. "Absolutely ridiculous. Behaving like that, what type of young lady are you? Ruining your clothes. Didn't my brother teach you anything? Absolutely unbelievable I tell you."

While he ranted Gabriella sulked, mimicking his talking with her hand. When Robbie caught sight of that Gabriella smiled guiltily up at him. "Cute." He huffed, making it clear he was unimpressed with the childish behaviour from the…child.

"Right!" Robbie proclaimed after another attempt to rid himself of the girl went wrong. He'd hoped that telling her to walk back to Busy City – he'd meet her there probably, maybe, definitely not – would be enough to at least get her out of his hair. But in true Rotten fashion, she'd balked at the mere idea of walking all that way.

"I _need_ rest." Robbie insisted firmly. "And I can't do that with you cluttering up my lair!"

Gabriella took this in. She thought about it very hard for a few seconds, eyebrows knitting together tightly in concentration, and then came to a conclusion. "Just sleep?" She suggested with a shrug, like she wasn't the very reason he _couldn't_.

Robbie was just about to fly into a longwinded explanation as to why that simply wasn't going to happen when he noticed the section of Lazytown they were currently walking through. It was hardly his favourite place in town, having spent a few good hours out here attempting to build a tree house and having the whole experience blow up in his face.

How could he – a genius – be expected to limit himself to some simple wood planks for a silly child's roost? The remains of his attempted tree house were still nailed up to a tree, looking horrible decrepit when compared the children's playhouse. It was perfect, no loose nails to catch their clothes on or splintered wood. They even had a new safety railing to avoid any sudden drops. It was practically baby proofed, not any fun at all. A child could _live_ up there comfortably and-

He paused, ran that thought through his mind again and then grinned. He had an idea.

"Well if you're not going to leave, then you'll just have to stay here." Robbie announced, setting Gabriella down in front of the tree house. "There, perfect. You can stay in there; it'll be just like your own house. Aren't I just the cleverest uncle you've ever had?"

"You're my only uncle."

"Yes well…hush." Robbie admonished sharply before gesturing to the tree house. "Well, how about it? A little house all for you." _Far away from my lair and far away enough that I'll be able to sleep._

Gabriella looked at the tree house dubiously. There was a spark of excitement there, what young child wouldn't light up at the idea of living in a tree house? But she still seemed hesitant. Slowly she glanced between Robbie and the offered playhouse. "Can I really?"

Robbie nodded enthusiastically and gave her a little encouraging nudge. He could practically feel all the sleep he'd be able to get if she'd just get into that blasted tree. The thought of removing the ladder after she was up did cross his mind but Robbie thought it best not to tempt fate and just have her stay up there willingly.

Slowly Gabriella seemed to come around to the idea and gave a slow nod. "Okay." She smiled, a tiny little expression that didn't light up her face like the earlier grins she'd toss him when a plan when array. "You'll be back in the morning, uncle?"

"Of course." _Not a chance._

Gabriella nodded again, not doubting him for a moment, and began to climb the ladder into the tree house. Robbie lingered cautiously. Every time she seemed to struggle for another rung he'd give her a little helping hand until she was safely on the tree house ledge. Satisfied Robbie waved cheerfully to Gabriella before practically running back for his lair.

It was amazing how fast the self proclaimed, laziest man in Lazytown, could move.

While Robbie head for his bed and a well-deserved sleep, Gabriella was left to her own devices in the tree house. Admittedly it was a very nice tree house. It looked like other children had been here once. There were cushions and toys scattered about. Some of them looked extremely old and a few others were clearly broken, none of them were exactly her idea of fun. Still it was nice to have the options of a slightly deflated football and broken racing car. Gabriella looked around curiously and found there were more than just blankets and trinkets.

Drawn in chalk on a blackboard was a set of names.

At least Gabriella thought they were names. They were all listed out one at a time. A few of them had clearly been rubbed out or faded over town, now there was only six and a half full names left. Two of which looked like they had some sort of number next to them, not like any number she'd ever seen. She was sure that she'd seen something like this before in her papa's books, it was her best guess.

Squinting she tried to spell out the letters but Gabriella wasn't very good at reading. Her papa had read to her and she tried to make sense of the weird scrawling's, but some of them looked exactly like others and she didn't know what sounds they made.

Looking around the dusty tree house Gabriella found some left over purple chalk. It was all she could find, it seemed the other colours had all been used up. She knew how to spell her own name and her papa's so she tried writing that up on the board with the others. Her letters were sloppy and Gabriella found herself upset by how bad hers looked compared to the other names.

But despite how bad it looked, that was still her father's name up there and under it was hers. Next Gabriella decided she'd try to write her uncles name but found this to be extremely difficult. She'd seen Robbie's name written once or twice but her father never seemed interested in teaching her how to write his brother's name, far more entertained with showing her the different ways they could draw a simply G.

Regardless she tried to sound out her uncle's name.

'Woby" seemed close enough.

Their names looked good in purple she decided but it didn't look like either of their names shared many things in common with the ones already up there.

She saw that the first letter of her name was in the middle of some of the others, twice in most of them! But she couldn't make out the meaning of that one strange snake looking one and plenty of the sounds of the others were lost on her.

Gabriella spent a long time staring at the names, trying to piece together what they must have sounded like. 'Giggy' didn't sound right to her and neither did 'Pehani' or 'Icky'. Those didn't sound like real names at all. Worst of all was the largest one, it had that funny snake looking shape at the beginning of it and it was a long name too. Gabriella tried a few times to say it but it didn't' feel right when she said "Takook" That didn't sound right at all.

Time passed as Gabriella played with the names, equally frustrated and entertained by her attempts. The sun was beginning to vanish behind the trees and reading them got harder and harder until the exact moment that she realised she couldn't see them at all anymore. It was night time.

It was dark.  
It was _dark_ and she was _alone_ …

...  
…

Down bellow Robbie had finally settled back into his orange chair. The lair was still and quiet, the brats were usually quiet at night and Robbie appreciated that immensely today. He needed this night and provided his own mind didn't turn against him, the villain of Lazytown was looking at perhaps even eight hours of sleep that day.

Knowing that Sportacus would be proud was enough to make even that thought unappealing. But Robbie didn't let it ruin his mood, he'd been successful after many failed attempts and now he could snooze and reap the rewards.

Once he was comfortable, blanket haphazardly tossed over his shoulders and a bowl of popcorn abandoned in his lap, Robbie was out like a light. This time when he collapsed there was no half measures made. His mind was blissfully silent and Robbie didn't so much as dream.

Then came the sound.

It was an unholy racket that woke Robbie out of his well-earned slumber. Jolting wildly Robbie sent popcorn everywhere, the initial panic faded after a couple of deep calming breaths but Robbie couldn't quite make out exactly what he was hearing.

"Why is this town never just quiet?" Robbie lamented, tossing his arms into the air with a low growl of frustration. "What on earth is that _racket_?"

Thoroughly annoyed, Robbie kicked out of his chair. Leaving the now undesired bowl of popcorn to go crashing to the floor along with every single cornel that had been popped in the first place. It seemed Robbie made popcorn an awful lot but ate very little of it.

This time when he called the periscope down, Robbie dodged it before the tricky deceive could make another attempt at giving him a concussion. Too tired to be angry at its knack for knocking him on the head most days, Robbie just peered through it instead of cursing his most used tool.

It didn't take long to locate the source of the commotion.

The tree house looked eerie at night and Robbie could only just make out its silhouette in the dark. The rest of Lazytown was still sleeping, making the sounds coming from the tree house that much worse. Robbie didn't understand at first, his mind refusing to process what he was actually hearing. That was the sound of a child crying.

The sound of _Gabriella_ crying.

For a few seconds, Robbie simply didn't know what to do. He kept looking through the periscope, as if the scene would somehow change into something a little less distressing if he just waited long enough. But as the moments trickled on by, the sound of sobbing only continued; growing more distraught and terrible the longer he waited.

"What do I care?" Robbie asked the empty air, puffing out his chest and crossing his arms. "I don't! I don't care in the slightest. I, Robbie Rotten, don't care one little bit if a child is crying. Not at all!"

There was no answer from the empty lair and in the silence he could still hear the sounds of Gabriella's crying. Each second that passed felt like a judgement. Robbie's head dropped, his shoulder's bunching up as he struggled with himself for a moment. Before he eventually exploded, tossing his arms out with a furious growl.

"But if she insists on making so much _noise_!" And with that Robbie abandoned sleep for another night.

He'd moved quickly when returning home childless earlier that day, but had any of the residents of Lazytown been awake to see it, they would have marvelled at the sheer speed with which Robbie Rotten raced across the town. They may have even remarked that it couldn't have been him, because Robbie Rotten wouldn't run like that unless he was being chased. It simply couldn't have been him!

But when Robbie arrived back at the park, legs screaming in protest and his lungs heaving just to drag air in, it was evident that he had in fact run the whole way there. Robbie choked and wheezed, very nearly losing his footing as he stopped by the tree house, leaning against the trunk of the tree for support so he wouldn't fall.

Exercise, it was going to kill him one day.

The sound of crying was softer now and far worse than what it had been. The loud crying had been replaced with quiet whimpers and sobs; the sounds all but punched the remaining air out of Robbie.

Struggling for the words to say and the breath with which to say them, Robbie managed to shout just one thing up to the child. "Ella!"

The crying stopped.

Softly the sound of someone moving about inside the kid's playhouse reached Robbie's ears over the pounding of his heart. Then gradually a little face sporting a pair of huge eyes came into view.

"Uncle?" Gabriella murmured as though she couldn't quite believe it and despite everything he'd gone through that day – Robbie smiled back. Breathless and exhausted the smile was a wretched one but he'd still managed to be caught off guard by his own reaction.

Big, fat tears were rolling down Ella's doll like cheeks and her face screwed up into a positively horrendous expression as the crying started all over again. Robbie opened his mouth to ask why she was crying now that he was here, intending to take insult in that, but Ella didn't give him the chance. His words broke off into a cry of alarm as she leapt from the tree house ledge and it was a near miss – but Robbie managed to catch her.

The child barrelled into Robbie's chest, curling instinctively into him as she sobbed into his clothes. Gasping for air after having just been head-butted by a four year old, Robbie couldn't manage to say anything for a while. His spindly arms instead wrapped tightly around little Ella, holding her securely to his now aching chest.

Ella didn't say anything at all but she kept on sobbing heavily. Robbie knew what Sportakook would have done, probably would have comforted her and then offered some terrible fruit or another. As if an apple could chase away tears.

Robbie knew better than that. "Cake." He managed to wheeze out after a moment. "You can have cake."

The sobbing turned a little softer, becoming quiet sniffles instead. "Cake?" She asked in a small voice and then when she felt brave enough. "…and hot chocolate?"

"Greedy." Robbie snorted. Then he gathered them both up, him back to his feet and Ella safely nestled against his shoulder. "And hot chocolate." He promised her idly.

Ella was much more compliant now that he was carrying her back to the lair as opposed to away from it. She was still trembling when they made it back to the billboard the entrance to his home was hidden behind. But her tears had all but dried up and by the time he'd managed to get them both safely back inside, she was asleep.

Robbie didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and instead carried them both over to the fuzzy orange beast that was his favourite place to sleep. The cake would be there in the morning and he'd never been one to snub a good hot chocolate although Glanni seemed to drink the stuff religiously. But for now he could finally sleep.

Granted not the way he'd expected to finally get his sleep but with the young girl quietly snoring against his shoulder, Robbie was willing to compromise and have his nap like this.

"Don't get the wrong idea." He told the sleeping child and whatever cruel god had decided to punish him that day. "This is just to make sure you're quiet. Can't sleep with all that noise you were making. That's all. I still have no time to babysit brats." Starting tomorrow he would be the most villainous villain he could be. He'd show Lazytown that a child didn't mean he couldn't still be fantastic at his job! Ella didn't wake up to hear the declaration, but she did nuzzle deeper into his arms and Robbie swore she even smiled a little bit.

There was no one there to see him smile back. No one could prove anything.


	4. Chapter 4

Robbie did not try to ship Ella off again after that.

It had surprised the young girl the next day when Robbie didn't seem up to playing anymore games like they had yesterday. It was a small blessing that neither man nor child had roused before midday, she had a sleeping pattern to match his at least. But when she was awake, she really was up and Ella – like most any child – wanted to do something now that she wasn't sleeping and it seemed she wanted to play more of those games they had yesterday.

Robbie did not share the sentiment.

"Well there'd be no point, would there?" He groused to the innocently watching girl the next day as he paced the length of the lair. Ella's now dirty clothes were offending his sensibilities and Robbie had to go through his entire collection to find something suitable for the young girl to wear. He still had a set of the Pink girl's outfit and immediately discarded the idea; his Ella wasn't going to be caught dead or alive wearing a hero's pet brat's clothes. "You'd just find one way or another to get back here. Why waste the energy when I could be sleeping? I can no more shake you than I can that flippity flopping Sportaloon!"

It took half his wardrobe and all of his patience but eventually Robbie found something that would at least suit Ella, although he couldn't exactly say it was in her size. Robbie frowned at the purple fabric held up in his hands, vaguely remembering a scheme he'd used it for, obviously that had been a bust because Sportacus was still in town. Speaking of…

"What's a spo-sportaloon?" Ella had asked in-between Robbie's irritated grumbling, the word getting butchered as she attempted to form all the different sounds it involved. Robbie allowed himself a small moment of honest amusement hearing the name come from someone that wasn't himself before shaking away the potential smile and marching over to Ella with the new clothes.

"A nuisance, a pest,-" Robbie ranted while carefully checking how much of the outfit needed to be adjusted for Ella by holding it up over her body. It was a lot of guess work but Robbie had the utmost faith in his ability. Ella continued to watch him with unabashed awe as he began to snip away at parts of the clothes, making the whole thing a rather exaggerated fair of flying fabrics and extravagant stitching that had no place in proper dress making.

"-a no good _hero_!" He concluded at the same time as he finished the adjustments to Ella's new dress. Robbie was happy to just hand it over at first but then thought better of it and fixed the young girl with a firm stare. "Do not get grass stains on this one, you understand me young lady?"

He couldn't say if Ella was actually absorbing the warning or not as she eagerly nodded and held out her hands for the new clothes. "I'm serious." He added while gingerly handing over the purple dress. Ella mumbled something about promising and Robbie decided it was good enough for now. As for the old dirt stained clothes…well he had half a mind to burn them but until he had a few more dresses for Ella, he'd have to settle for just washing them.

Robbie glanced back over at his niece, catching the wide eyed look of wonderment lighting up her face as she hugged the dress tightly. What kind of a villains child was she? A look that bright had no place on the face of a criminal's daughter, or a villain's niece. He found himself watching as her joy played out in the way her eyes positively shone and dedicating it to memory. It was ridiculous for her to smile like that; he was merely committing it to memory to make sure….to… Oh for goodness sake!

Quickly the Lazytown villain pushed away the traitorous thoughts and forced himself to look away from the little ball of sunshine.

"Now, I have a busy schedule today." Robbie began anew, adopting a condescending tone as he dragged open his favourite chest and started sorting through potential schemes for the day. "I have to deal with that pest problem myself, so I had no time for childish games. You'll have to entertain yourself. I am a very busy many." He continued, carelessly throwing unnecessary tools over his shoulder while leaving the odd one in the chest for later.

With her new dress appropriately fawned over, Ella's attention shifted to her uncle again. She watched as wrenches and bits of plywood went flying over her uncle's back. Curiously she teetered over to one side to see the box he was digging around in. It didn't seem like the chest was big enough to fit half the things he was pulling out of it, which did not strike the young child as odd in the slightest. Glanni was known for having a similar set up with his wardrobe, it seemed like he had more clothes than there was room for in the entire world.

Thinking about what her uncle was complaining about Ella perked up cheerfully when she made the connection. Her papa had talked about stuff like that before and little Ella didn't think it was unusual at all to be on the other side of the law. Glanni had spent all his time being a criminal and so a villain wasn't that much of a stretch. "Oh! Oh! Is he a…a um… a mustard monkey? Papa says we shouldn't play with those."

Robbie paused in his searching to look back at the child with a puzzled expression. Ella sat up straight on his favourite chair, staring at him with those big expectant eyes of hers. He'd heard plenty of ridiculous things come out of children's mouths before, but that was certainly not among them.

"What? No. He's a blue kangaroo if anyth-" He stopped, thought about what she'd said, then promptly decided that he didn't know what nonsense Glanni had been teaching her and that he had no intentions of finding out. He'd have to put a stop to this gibberish immediately if he was to be stuck with the girl.

"Your entire education as a villain's child will have to be done over!" He announced sternly, gathering himself back up to his full height. "Whom better than I, the best villain in all of Lazytown, to show you exactly what being a villain looks like."

"Papa is a criminal." She pointed out cheerfully and Robbie deflated some.

Yes, that did sound exactly like how Glanni would be spoken about and quite possibly how he talked about himself as well. He did have a bit more of a…let's call it, profit driven felonious streak.

That was certainly no way for a child to see her father, but Robbie could at least remove 'fraud' from the long list of things Glanni had done wrong in the child rearing department. What little child rearing he had done anyway.

"Well I'm not!" Robbie stated, insulted by the mere idea. "I am an artist, a genius, a _villain_! I have standards and as such I cannot be expected to take a break just because you need me to play babysitter." He then turned and pointed at Ella with a stern shake of his finger. "My town, my rules."

"Games need rules." Ella echoed.

"Precisely! Rule number one – Robbie knows best, we all listen to Robbie." He began, flicking one finger up for each rule he spouted and Ella giggled as she watched her uncle's theatrics. He was far more bouncy than her father was.

"Rule number two – children will not get in the way of Robbie's work. Rule number three – there will be no running, or playing, or laughing," Robbie added sternly when he caught sight of Ella giggling.

To her credit she did try to stop by jamming her little hands over her mouth, but only succeeded in turning her giggles to barely contained snorts. "or overzealous activity of any kind. Absolutely _no_ flipping or flopping! And Rule four-! Well…uh…" Robbie hesitated, running out of spur-of-the-moment rules. "We'll make them up as we go."

Shrugging Robbie left the impromptu rule session there for the time being. "You got all that?" He was pleased when Ella managed a little salute. "Good."

He'd been content to go back to his packing after that, but it seemed little Gabriella still had a few questions of her own. Robbie had almost gathered all the things he needed for that day's plan when the young girl began to speak again.

"Um…Uncle Robbie? What do villains do?" Ella asked curiously.

"What do we do?" Robbie repeated, sounding as though he'd taken offense to the question. "What do we _do_? Well we..." Oh lord this was beginning to feel familiar. "…we chase heroes on the run of course!"

"The kanga?" Ella asked excitedly and it took Robbie a moment to realise she meant Sportacus. They were going to have to work on those verbalisation skills.

"That's right. Then once we have him, we stuff him into a cannon and shoot him right out of Lazytown forever!"

"But then what?"

"I—pardon?"

"When the kanga…the kangaroo is gone – then what do villains do?"

He'd never actually gotten that far. Robbie momentarily stumped by the question tried to come up with an answer. Tried to come up with anything. Anything at all.

He had nothing.

Getting Sportacus out of Lazytown had always been the goal but his plans didn't extend much past that. He planned to spend a good three days doing nothing but sleeping and eating once the elf was out of the way, but beyond general laziness there wasn't much else he had in mind. It didn't help that he hadn't once been able to get rid of the man, despite his many attempts.

"Papa always said the monkey might as well stay." Ella was chatting, rather oblivious to her uncle's small, and utterly life crushing, realisation. "He said it would be easy to get rid of him but it's different because papa is a criminal isn't it? Oh! Does the kangaroo also have a mons-"

"Enough questions!" Robbie declared, and when it seemed like Gabriella was about to open her mouth to ask anymore regardless, Robbie cut her off with a sharp snap of his fingers. "Rule one!" Simmering down, Ella pouted and mumbled the rule of 'Robbie knows best' under her breath. Satisfied that she was going to keep to those rules for now at least, Robbie then gestured to the chest.

If he was to pack everything into the container then the girl was going in there as well. It would be the easiest way to make sure she didn't go getting into trouble while he was trying to trick Sportacus out of the picture.

This time however when the young girl's face screwed up in displeasure, Robbie didn't immediately jump to rule one. "What is it? Not good enough for you?"

"I don't want to go back into a box." Ella replied sternly, her little hands balling up into tight fists. "Had enough of boxes."

Robbie paused, thought about this for a few seconds and then relented with a heavy sigh. "Alright, alright, _fine_." He huffed and marched over to his niece, who didn't so much as blink when he reached down and tugged her up out of the chair with a single swipe of his hand.

Ella squealed in delight when her uncle scooped her up under one arm and began to giggle uncontrollably immediately after. She didn't squirm all that much which was a small relief and it was only her lightweight that allowed Robbie to carry her around under his arm like a sack of potatoes at all.

"What did I say about laughing!" Robbie barked down at the girl who, without a shred of guilt, grinned back up at him.

"Rule two." She answered dutifully, only just able to swallow the rest of her giggles. A few still managed to weasel their way out but Robbie pretended not to hear them. He wouldn't be so lenient next time, there was going to be a lot of next times no doubt.

And it was unlikely that he would really be any less lenient with any of them.

Robbie Rotten wasn't about to let this set him back. Child or no child, he was still going to find the perfect trap or trick to send Sportadork packing. Today he was going to prove just that, now where did he put that cage?

…  
…

The kids were riled up today.

With another lovely day rolling into town, the kids were eager to be outside and spend their hours playing games. It was not unlike most days in Lazytown but having sent their letters yesterday, the kids were excitedly awaiting replies. However being a Sunday, there was no hope they'd be getting responses that day. Still, the kids held out hope for the Friday where the letters would be distributed during class. Regardless of the wait time, all the children were running on jittery nerves, adding an extra energy to their playing and properly dismissing the notion of a 'lazy Sunday'.

Sportacus felt that this was a double-edged sword. They were clearly excited, and their smiles were contagious. However, their frantic rushing about was going to get someone hurt if they weren't careful. Which was exactly why he was currently down in the town as opposed to up on the airship.

What was more difficult was the fact that there wasn't really anything they could do to vent that energy. A result of this pen pal arrangement was the anticipation of getting letters in return and with Stephanie having sent her first letter – well all the children were very excited to see who wrote back to her.

They'd all been paired up with a child from the Busy City public school, but that meant that they didn't know whom Stephanie would hear from and it was all very exciting.

Although Sportacus couldn't help but notice Stephanie was more anxious than she was excited. It was difficult not to notice when the older girl broke away from the other kids as they planned out a new game for the day. Seeing someone down in Lazytown, well the sight stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Stephanie?" The young girl jumped, having been so deep in her fretting that she'd failed to notice Sportacus even as he flipped over to her. She'd been sitting in the shade of one of the courtyard walls, perhaps she didn't realise anyone knew she was there. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, of course!" Stephanie answered immediately, whipping out the sunniest smile she could muster.

A whole two seconds passed before the expression crumbled and she backtracked. "Well…maybe not _that_ alright." She mumbled, gaze dropping down to her twiddling thumbs. "It's silly."

Sportacus was not as well versed in the art of emotional comfort as he was health, but he'd known Stephanie and the others for long enough now to know when it was alright to push and when he needed to withdraw. Keeping the balance between the two was more difficult than he initially thought.

But today he knew it was okay to push.

"No, no." Sportacus knelt down so that he was at eye level with Stephanie. "If it's important to you, how can it be silly?"

It looked like Stephanie thought he'd said something funny because she smiled like she wanted to laugh but the expression never fully reached her eyes. If anything she seemed to be even more miserable than before and Sportacus was at a loss. Did she not think he was being serious? The children knew he wouldn't lie to them, didn't they?

"It's just…" Stephanie struggled for the words for a few seconds but once she found them they all came pouring out. "What if they don't like what I wrote? What if I said something rude, or they think I'm boring? What if they don't want to write back…what if they _do_ write back? What do I say, I don't know anything about them and I just…I…"

"Hey, hey, Stephanie slow down." Sportacus began quietly, keeping his voice warm but still as sincere as he possible could. "Whoever gets your letter will love it. I'm sure they're just as nervous to write back to you as you are to hear from them."

"You really think so?" Despite how small Stephanie's voice was, Sportacus immediately perked up, jumping on the opportunity.

"I know so."

This time when Stephanie smiled it finally reached her eyes and Sportacus could rest easy knowing that they still had faith in him.

"Now, how about we go join the others?" He suggested, more than ready to return to the sports field and partake in an activity he was much better suited for. "You'll be having fun before you know it."

Sportacus made good on his word and it wasn't long before Stephanie's smile had returned in earnest as she joined in the other children's games. Soccer was a crowd favourite but it would not be able to sustain a whole day.

In the end that day had been a bit of a strange one. Sportacus couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something but his crystal had not once gone off save for a brief tumble mayor Meanswell took while trying to clear out Miss Busybody's gutter.

Actually, not just that day, but the whole week had been a bit peculiar. He couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly and the feeling persisted throughout the week, not quite troubling enough to distract the town hero, but enough that it never strayed far from the back of his mind. It had not been a bad week by any means.

But it was full of little oddities.

When Ziggy had suggested they eat lunch outside that same Sunday, Sportacus had thought it was a marvellous idea and so he and the kids had packed up a bunch of sportscandy and headed for the open fields. However, the basket they'd prepared ended up going missing between there and the picnic destination.

The children searched high and low for the mysteriously vanished basket of goodies. Sportacus had tried to find it as well and just when they were beginning to think it was gone for good, there it was. Sitting innocently on the windowsill as though it had never been missing in the first place. Odd, but by no means a bad turn of events, the picnic carried out as planned.

On the Monday the children had returned to school and Sportacus in turn had spent most of his day up in the airship. But when evening set in, Sportacus was alerted to one of the children being in distress.

The crystal lit up and beeped urgently, supplying Sportacus with a vague image of what the terrified lazytown resident was seeing before cutting out. At the time he hadn't known what to make of the purple deflated beast the crystal had showed him. But when he arrived at Ziggy's house, only an hour before eight that night, he'd found the young boy terrified over what appeared to be an abandoned monster costume.

Sportacus had spent a good ten minutes assuring Ziggy that it was not in fact alive and that it was just a costume – for fun. Of course even once Ziggy was calmed down, a lollipop having been in order and the costume tossed away into the airship compartment, Sportacus was still left wondering where one earth it had come from.

The next morning Sportacus had been testing one of his old times. Seeing how quickly he could clear the distance, and walls in middle, between Lazytown Hall and the forest edge. He'd almost stumbled halfway through the run, not expecting the grass to be uprooted in the middle of Lazytown park. He'd flipped over the uneven patch of earth but feeling the extra few seconds the movement cost him and knowing it would ruin his overall time, Sportacus had stopped and backed up to see what had happened to the grassy patch.

As he inspected the odd marks, Sportacus could only guess that something heavy had been dragged through the dirt. There were two sets of deeply torn up grass lines and a large portion of dirt had been piled up in front of whatever had been dragged away. The tracks stopped at the road, turning briefly into an overspill of soil and some scrape marks, but beyond that the trail was lost.

Baffled and a little bit concerned about the wellbeing of the grass, Sportacus had decided to fix up the park first. There wasn't much he could do for the uprooted flowers and patches of grass that had been ripped out, but he could at least fill in the subsequent potholes. It wasn't like the children to tear up the park, and as far as he knew there were no dogs around that could or even would make marks like that.

The thought had troubled Sportacus for most of the day, at least until his crystal chimed again and he found Pixel's computer set up on the verge of a meltdown. Too many things were plugged into one power point and the whole thing had become a hazard. The resulting lesson he taught the kids about being smart about their electronics quickly chased all thoughts of the park from his mind.

Wednesday hadn't been much different.

He'd just been out with the children, walking along the wall on his hands as the kids happily chatted about their day in class. Sportacus had been idly listening and offering up pointers here and there when Trixie stepped on something that wasn't road or dirt.

"Isn't that one of Robbie's potholes?" She asked curiously tapping her foot down on what had once been a cavernous hole in the ground. Instead what Trixie was – thankfully – standing on, was wood.

Haphazardly a few wooden planks had been nailed down. Their placement was messy and unorganised but it was an extremely thorough job. Covering the hole up with two separate layers of wood, each nail hammered down until it was impossible to get caught on them. It was sturdy enough to hold an adult and Trixie was certainly no problem.

Sportacus hadn't thought much about Robbie's holes around town, most of which had to be filled in eventually. Sometimes he'd thought about approaching the villain, warning him against making them. What if someone didn't see them and fell in? Robbie himself had almost gotten stuck down them in the past.

This one didn't seem to be a problem anymore and the kids shrugged it off more quickly than Sportacus did. He'd have to ask the mayor and see if he'd been the one to patch up the hole or if he'd asked someone else to do it. But, of course, following with the trend of that week, the mayor hadn't the foggiest what Sportacus was asking about.

By the time Thursday rolled around, Sportacus was almost expecting something of a similar nature to occur.

This time when Sportacus came rushing into town at the call of his crystal he found himself at a loss. There didn't seem to be any trouble and every one of the residents he checked in with seemed to be perfectly fine. He'd even ventured out to Robbie's abode and found the man to be absent. Not home but also certainly not in any trouble, besides it couldn't have been Robbie in his underground home going off what the crystal had showed him.

His crystal had given him the warning and an accompanying sense of panic, but the image that came with it was just the open sky.

Sportacus couldn't even pinpoint what section of sky was being looked at when there wasn't so much as a cloud floating above that day. His crystal had gone silent while he talked to the towns people, which should have comforted him, except Sportacus didn't know trouble to resolve itself often.

The mysterious appearing monster costumes, disappearing and reappearing baskets – all of that Sportacus could perhaps overlook and write off as the makings of an unusual but ultimately harmless week. But for his crystal to misfire? It was practically unheard of and Sportacus couldn't just shrug it off with a beaming smile and a few flips. He had to get to the bottom of this.

He had turned to go back to the airship and maybe pull his crystal out for a quick check for any problems, not that he'd known it to ever make mistakes, when Sportacus saw what had his crystal in a twist. It was completely by chance that Sportacus had glanced up at that exact moment. Just in time to spot the source of the problem.

Up in the sky, almost too far away to properly see, dangling off the end of the ladder to his airship… Yep, that was Robbie.


	5. Chapter 5

The week had been a complete disaster. Just one after another.

The only thing separating this from his usual experience in Lazytown was the cause of all the problems. Typically, Sportacus had claim to most of Robbie's ruined plans, at least according to the villain himself. The townsfolk might have said it was Robbie that acted as his own worst enemy.

But this week it was clear that neither he nor Sportaloon were to blame. Nope, it all boiled down to the kid that had been dropped on him.

It started that same Sunday…

"What is it?" Robbie snipped. Ella had been tugging at his pants leg for a few minutes now but Robbie had tried to ignore her, thinking she'd get bored and leave him alone. "What do you want now?"

"I'm hungry." Ella told him in a matter of fact way.

"And?"

Staring up at her uncle like he was quite possibly the dumbest person to grace planet earth Ella simply said, "Feed me." and Robbie groaned.

Hadn't he provided more than enough cake for the kid? He had popcorn, cookies, cake and chips – what more could she want. Ella had beamed at first when he pulled out the usual menu that morning and she'd showed no hesitation in downing anything put in front of her. But only a mere four hours later and she was hungry again?

"Can you not see I am in the middle of a very important plan?" Robbie demanded, gesturing to the Rotten Candy Faker Maker 3000. Which Ella still seemed a little confused by. More its origin than what it did. She'd watched him pull it out of the chest of heaven's sake; there was no reason to look so puzzled by it all. She only looked more amazed when he proceeded to pour sugar in and got a plump, shiny apple in return.

"The other kids get to have a picnic!" Ella pointed out sharply and Robbie had to hold back a growl.

"Well we can fix that. Don't touch _anything_ and don't move. Don't even breathe." He commanded, setting Ella down atop the chest before stalking off towards the mayor's house.

Robbie didn't look back to make sure that Ella was following his instructions, for all her complaining she was at the very least obedient. If Ella thought it was unfair the children got a picnic then he'd just have to make sure no one got to have a picnic, even if they were only going to be eating that wretched sportscandy.

"But…" Ella watched her uncle disappear around the back of the house he'd been sneaking around earlier with a frown. "…there's no one looking for us?" At least she didn't think anyone was playing hide-and-seek with them. Glancing around the town Ella didn't see anyone at all but in the past she'd been wrong about that, there were people out there that were better seekers than her but Ella didn't think anyone could find her once she got hiding. The town seemed peaceful and Ella wanted nothing more than to go exploring. But her uncle said not to so much as breathe and so Ella settled down, crammed between the chest and strange device her uncle had wheeled out.

It wasn't the best hiding place in the world but Ella curled her legs up into her chest and shrank down into the shadow of the wall behind her. Wedged between deceive and chest, while hidden under the sacks of sugar Robbie had brought out, Ella all but vanished into her hiding spot.

Ella had just started to nod off when she heard someone settling down on the other side of the wall. Instinctively she tensed, arms curling tighter around her knees as her eyes shot wide open. Suddenly the order about not breathing became very literal and Ella didn't draw a single breath.

The seconds trickled on by and Ella felt doubt began to creep its way in. Her uncle wouldn't have made that order and then just left, unless he played by different rules to papa? Ella was still trying to figure out exactly how this version of hide and seek worked when she heard the person on the other side of the wall give a little sniffle.

They were upset.

Which meant they were probably not playing the game Ella thought they were. Curious but still unwilling to break Robbie's orders until he came back to tell her the coast was clear and the game was over, Ella listened closely.

It sounded like a girl on the other side of the wall and Ella wondered what she could be upset about. The town was so lovely and bright, the air felt fresh and the sky was almost always sunny and blue. What was there to feel sad about in a place like this?

Ella stayed still and listened as someone else came, she squeaked in alarm, accidentally breaking the rules of the game, when that other someone flipped over the wall she was huddled under. Ella shrank back deeper into the little crevice she'd made herself, feeling a familiar, comforting pressure roll over her as she curled into a tighter ball – hiding herself properly from eyes not equipped to see through her little tricks.

It was only through practice that she was able to keep her heart steady and her breath held. She mustn't panic. Panic lead to a loss of control and her hiding place would be found in a second flat. They didn't see her which, while Ella should have known as much, still felt like a massive flood of relief. They never saw her when they flipped on over, but every time Ella thought maybe this time her attempts at hiding would fall flat.

She was still a master hider.

Realising that the person that had just vaulted overhead wasn't wearing a shred of gold or red, Ella relaxed a fraction. Guilt set in immediately – never relax around a flippity hero.

She knew that, the words had been drilled into her head time and time again, but Ella couldn't help but let her guard slip. The man talking on the other side of that wall…well his every word was like something warm and kind. It left Ella vaguely thinking of sweet honey tea or a blanket on a cold night. But even as Ella wanted to fold into that comfort and trust her instincts, she knew her papa would be furious with her.

You could never trust your feelings that much.

Especially the happy ones. Especially the ones that left you with a smile and a willingness to listen to a kind voice. Truly bad men could weave spells of joy and delight with little more than a gentle word. She knew better than to trust. Only her papa, only her uncle. She could only trust family, no one else. Ever.

As she listened in on the conversation, a very pleasant conversation actually, Ella didn't once think it was wrong of her to eavesdrop. It was an essential skill according to Glanni, being quiet and spying was a very important skill for a young girl to develop. So as she sat there hearing about two stranger's concerns and insecurities, Ella didn't see anything wrong with keeping the information.

It was only when the other somebody, the kind jumping man, said they should go play with the other kids that Ella felt a little discouraged. She didn't want to play with the other children exactly. Other kids were loud and they all moved about far too much, not to mention they'd no doubt get her new dress dirty, she didn't have any interest in playing with them.

Except even as Ella thought that, echoing her papa's words on the inferiority of other children, Ella still felt a distinct sensation of loss when the two left to return to the sports field.

But the game still stood.  
Not a peep.

On the other side of the mayor's house, Robbie had found the picnic basket. The mayor had made this for the kids and knowing that lot they'd all be positively thrilled to go and have a healthy picnic up on the hills. Sportacus would go with them of course and in Robbie's experience he'd never been able to resist a perfectly good red apple. What was better was the fact that the mayor had just left it there, sitting innocently on the windowsill, practically begging someone to sabotage it.

"Will he ever not fall for this?" Robbie snickered to himself as he unloaded a newly crafted sugar apple into the basket.

Thinking he could hear that bumbling fool of a mayor coming back, Robbie hurried away from the window and back around the corner of the house. He waited until he heard Milford say something about the basket, it seemed like he was completely unaware of Robbie's tampering and everything would go as planned.

Feeling rightly proud of himself Robbie returned to his chest and sugar apple dispenser, only to start when he didn't see Ella there.

"That blasted girl! I told her to stay put." Robbie looked around wildly; in the distance he could see the kids and Sportaloon playing on the sport's field. He could see them but not a little purple dress-wearing girl.

"Ella?" Robbie shout whispered, not wanting to alert the townspeople to his being there or the fact he'd lost a whole child in the space of one day. "Ella, where did you go?"

Nothing. Robbie couldn't believe this. Where had she gone?

How did someone manage to lose a whole child? Robbie was in such a fit of panic that he failed to notice that she was exactly where she'd been left. Still neatly curled up between machine and box. It was reasonable to expect that she would have come out hearing her name, but Ella was playing a wholly different game to her uncle and the rules dictated she not move until the right words were said.

So even though Ella could hear her uncle looking for her, she didn't move. It wouldn't be the first time that she'd sat through this sort of test, having failed it the first three or four times and coming out before the right words were said. Each time resulting in a new lecture, and Ella wanted to impress her uncle while she was visiting. So she didn't move an inch when he called her.

Unaware of these conditions, Robbie tried to think of where the little monster would have gotten off to. She'd said she was hungry and made comment on the picnic...

Robbie rushed back around to the mayor's window, half expecting to find Ella there stealing food from the basket. Unfortunately she wasn't there either but Robbie had a thought, perhaps she was just being a pest because he hadn't gotten her that food she wanted? As much as he wanted to nip that sort of bratty behaviour in the butt, right now Robbie was more concerned with finding Ella than anything else. So if food was what it took to drag her back out. It would be a long shot but the kids did like their cakes as well and perhaps that would be enough to entice Ella out of hiding.

Without a second thought Robbie swiped the basket full of nasty fruits.

He didn't much care for the ensuing confusion of the townsfolk when they found their lunch missing. They were searching high and low for a pathetic bag full of disgusting plants they passed off as food, while he was searching for a whole child. Robbie was pretty damn sure his needs took precedence in this situation.

At first Robbie had tried simply speaking to the open air, with the promise of food to try and get Ella to reappear. When that fell short, Robbie resorted to leaving what could only be described as cake traps around the town. Setting down plates of the stuff, testing his own restraint to not eat it all himself, and hoping Ella would scuttle out of whatever hole she'd crawled into just to have a bite.

He had about as much luck with this tactic as the townspeople did trying to locate their missing food.

"Perfect, just wonderful. Here I was with the perfect plan and the girl goes and vanishes on me. How am I supposed to have Sportaloser have a sugar meltdown when I'm having an actual meltdown?"

Robbie, feeling caught between frustration and fatigue sat himself down by his chest of schemes and his favourite machine. Seated on one of the ineffectual waist high walls that littered the town, he began tapping away anxiously, trying to think of what to do. He'd never had to go child hunting before and part of Robbie traitorously suggested asking for help.

Sportacus found missing children all the time, surely he could manage…

No. Absolutely not. Robbie banished the thought from his mind with a vigorous shake of his head. He was not going to resort to asking Sportaloon for help. Not now, not ever! Left between a rock and a hard place, Robbie's foot began to tap away a little more viciously and without even realising it he fell back into a familiar one. A simple rapid four beat pattern, the last he'd heard resurfacing while he focused on everything else.

He had been sitting there for no more than four full raps of the innocuous little beat when—

"Robbie!" Ella squealed in delight, popping up by his side like a daisy straight out of hell, giving her poor uncle a near heart attack. Robbie flailed in a panic, his long limbs all getting tangled up in one another as he went spiralling over the side of the wall. Ella peered down at him from where she propped herself up on her elbows on the wall and grinned.

He'd never been so simultaneously infuriated and relieved to see a child something at him.

Scrambling back to his feet, determined to save whatever shred of dignity he still had, Robbie whirled on the girl. "Where did you go?" Robbie demanded, hands firmly set on the girl's shoulders. "I told you to stay right-!"

"I was there." Ella broke in, looking up at him with a look of genuine confusion and a little bit of fear. "I…I stayed right there. I was waiting."

"Why didn't you come out?" Robbie demanded, feeling his adrenaline beginning to fade, leaving behind a lingering sense of distress. His gaze slipped down to the small crevice she'd forced herself into. Looking at it now

Robbie could see clearly, he should have been able to see Ella hiding down there, but at the time his eyes seemed to just gloss over the space between the machine and the chest. He knew that feeling, of seeing something but also being unable to see it, having his own eyes telling him what he saw wasn't there. Had she...had Ella done that on purpose?

"I called you, Ella."

"But you didn't!" Ella protested angrily then her little eyes hardened and she pointed an accusing finger at her uncle. "You were trying to trick me!"

"What? No I wasn't. When have I ever done something like…" Robbie thought better of that comment and instead just rolled his eyes. "Next time I call you, you come out. No arguments. You got that kiddo?"

"That's not how the game works…" Ella mumbled miserably but upon seeing her uncle's eyes narrow a fraction, Ella gave a sullen nod. "When you call." She agreed and Robbie felt like he could finally breath again.

"Good." He released Ella and straightened out his vest. Unwilling to let anyone else see how ruffled the whole ordeal had made him. "Now you've wasted plenty of time with your antics today, we'll be lucky to get to that flipping buffoon in time to even sabotage his lunch." Taking the basket into his hand again, Robbie pointed at Ella as sternly as possible. " _I_ am going to put this back. _You_ are going to stay here, right here, where I can see you and when I'm back we're going to have a long, excruciatingly boring discussion about hiding charms."

Ella looked about as thrilled for that conversation as Robbie felt. Perhaps they'd forgo it in favour of watching Sportacus flop onto his face after eating his ingenious sugar apple.

Satisfied that he wasn't about to have another case of vanishing Ella to deal with, Robbie hurried to put the basket back. It was easy and knowing this town no one would question it that much. So he set the basket down and crouched behind one of the mayor's bushes to watch as the group returned and – of course – didn't hesitate to take the basket. They weren't the least bit suspicious and Robbie was eternally thankful and amused by their naivety.

Once Sportacus and the kids had the basket, Robbie returned and was pleased to see Ella exactly where she'd been left. He was just about to comment on maybe skipping that lecture, seeing as it was so much effort, when he noticed something that stopped him dead.

"What _are_ you eating?" The disgust in Robbie's voice was pliable.

Sitting happily with her back to Robbie's Rotten Candy Faker Maker 3000 and thankfully not wedged between it and the chest again, Ella was munching on an apple. At first Robbie's refined pallet reared back in revulsion, no Rotten or Glæpur child was going to be caught eating that rot in public.

Ella didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with the shiny red fruit clasped in her hands and was looking up at her cringing uncle with a vaguely confused expression. "An apple." She answered and Robbie wretched at the nonchalance with which she said that word. "Do you want one?" She offered, reaching down to her side for another and Robbie had half a mind to kick the thing away from her.

"No! None of that!" Robbie snapped, snatching the second fruit away from Ella. "You'll poison yourself with this…this _health_ food! Where on earth did you even get this?"

"Tastes fine to me." Ella replied reasonably, taking another bite of the apple. "I took it from the basket while you were sulking." She added almost as an afterthought and Robbie decided they'd be adding lessons on not stealing from him to her now pending lecture. Although there was every chance his older brother had taught her that one at the same time as he'd showed her how to nick two large apples from a basket right next to the owner without being caught.

Robbie was about two seconds away from throwing up in his mouth when he noticed something a little strange with that apple.

Didn't it look just a little too perfect? Just a little too red and plump? All at once Robbie was assaulted my conflicting feelings. First came the realization of what the thing in Ella's hand was and what it meant. Second a massive wave of relief knowing that his niece was not in fact spoiling herself with sportscandy. But immediately after that came panic and anger.

"Ella." Robbie began, tone dropping down into one of false sweetness. "Do you know what that is?"

Once again the young girl looked at him like he was a moron. "An apple." She repeated more slowly for his benefit. "Obviously."

"That word is too big for your mouth, brat." Robbie snipped before swiping the apple out of Ella's hands, much to her dismay and of course, just as he suspected, inside the apple was more sugar than fruit. "This is a sugar apple!" He declared furiously. "The sugar apple _Sportaflop_ is supposed to eat." Robbie continued fuming when Ella didn't seem to grasp the implications of what she'd just eaten. "You ate my master plan!"

Ella took this information in, digested it for a moment along with whatever she'd managed to eat of the false fruit her uncle had taken away, and then shrugged with a little smirk. "Are all your master plans so yummy? Can I have another one?"

It was at that moment Robbie remembered…she was _Glanni's_ daughter. Of course…

…  
…

So Sunday had been a bust, but no matter! Robbie had another plan for the following Monday. This time laying down some more ground rules for Ella.

"We will not _eat_ uncle's plots, is that understood?" Ella, entirely unrepentant for having devoured one of his absolute favourite schemes, nodded with a small grin on her overly sweet face. Robbie stared the child down for a few more seconds, as if to remind her that the cute and innocent act would only go so far. "This time you stay in the lair." He added, much to Ella's dismay. "Ah, ah! No complaints. That's what happens when you eat master plans!"

Leaving Ella in the lair made sense. Although Robbie's mind not so helpfully supplied a mountain of horrible possibilities as to what he might return to that evening should he stepped foot out of his underground abode. Abandoning it to the whims of a potential destructive brat.

Refusing to allow such thoughts to deter him from a new scheme, Robbie pushed them all forcefully aside and focused solely on his plan. Tonight he had pulled out another old favourite. He must have been on a nostalgia kick that week because Robbie had dragged the old monster suit out of storage. It was still as ridiculous and threatening as he remembered the dinosaur like purple beast being. He also vaguely remembered it being somewhat effective in scaring Sportacus.

A little too effective actually. He wanted the idiot out of town, not scared out of his wits.

Still, if it worked, it worked and Robbie – completely unaware of his own need to impress – wanted to be able to return to the lair that evening and happily declare to his niece that he had once and for all outsmarted that blue elf.

As such he may have added more teeth to the old costume, as well as found some old red lights among his hoard of gadgets to put into the eyes. Thinking he'd made it all the more fearsome he'd decided to show off his new disguise to Ella before he left for the evening.

A small miscalculation on his part.

He's heard children shriek in his time but there was something ungodly about the sound of sheer terror that tore out of his little niece the moment she laid eyes on him. He could have been forgiven for mistaking her for a banshee instead of one of his brood in that moment.

What he had not expected was to Ella to try and attack him. Screaming something about a monster eating her favourite uncle. She'd just managed to use those little grabby hands of hers to climb up onto the head of the disguise when Robbie's desperate shouts for her to calm down seemed to finally register. Robbie tore the head of the monster outfit off, little Ella still perched atop the maw, and peeking down at her definitely not eaten uncle.

That attempt ended with Ella clinging to him for the remainder of the night and the costume being violently shot out of Robbie's favourite cannon. Per the now sulking child's demand. Robbie didn't even check to see where it had landed, completely unaware of it landing in Ziggy's house and terrorising the child.

When Tuesday rolled around, Robbie was in much higher spirits.

This trap was perfect. It had style, class, secrecy and above all else, it was effective. Not to mention yet another old favourite.

Absolutely positive that this time his efforts would pay off and he'd have a trapped elf before the day was out, Robbie dropped the unruly child off in one of the grass patches she loved so much. Annoyance out of the way - check. All nuts and bolts were in the correct positions and tightened. He'd bought the trap off the internet but he was sure the do-it-yourself waterside was of good quality. Coupling it with his favoured elf proof cage, Robbie found himself in possession of a faultless trap.

All the effort of putting the contraption together left Robbie exhausted, giddy and hot. Enough that he took off his vest, laying it down while he made the final adjustments to his new trap – guaranteed to catch children and childish elves alike.

The trap was not perfect.

The grass had been fun for a time but with all Robbie's excitement and exaggerated gestures, Ella had become interested in what he was doing, the slide seemed to be a wonderful diversion. It didn't come with anything like a board or mat for Ella to slide down the slippery slope on. Her uncle could be rather silly when he made these fun inventions. The slide was made to be put with water but her uncle seemed to her left that part out and Ella decided she'd just have to make do without. The slide was missing a few key features to make it suitable for children, but regardless Ella was a Glæpur – and a Glæpur could make anything work.

So Ella snatched up uncle Robbie's momentarily abandoned fancy vest and prepared a run start. Three, two, one – _bombs away!_

Robbie's first clue that he'd once again miscalculated and underestimated the destructive joy of a curious child, was an overjoyed squeal. That was not normally the sound his plots aimed to elicit.

Stalking away from his control panel Robbie was faced with a horrifying scene. His niece hurtling down a slippery slide at high speed towards a Sportanut proof cage.

"Ella? Why you little-! Look out, you're-!" The crash very nearly shook the very ground, causing Robbie to almost lose his balance. Swaying to try and stop himself from toppling over, Robbie grabbed ahold of the nearest tree for stability. "-going to hurt yourself."

For a moment Robbie was scared to look, scared to see if he now had a niece that was in multiple pieces. Cautiously he peered down into the mouth of the cage where the slide lead into. He really shouldn't have worried. There in the terrible, horrible, absolutely dreadful, elf-proof cage was a giggling little Gabriella. Grinning from ear to ear up at him like she'd just had the rid of her life.

"Again!" She cried out enthusiastically. "Again, again, I want to do it again!"

"Absolutely not! Just for that, you're going to stay in that cage and repent on your actions! No more running around for you, not for the rest of the day! Children, _harrumph_." With that he shut the cage door, not that it seemed to deter little Ella. She seemed to find it all very entertaining as her uncle began to make efforts to drag both cage and girl back to his lair. Ripping up the park grass as he did.

Heaving his failed cage and dignity back to the lair Robbie was tired. It seemed his punishment wasn't working. "Faster uncle Robbie, come one, I want to go faster!"

If he could he would melt to the ground this very minute. However, he still had a highly un-nutritious meal to feed Ella and a bubble bath that could not be skipped. Stupid, useless, good for nothing, child dumping, brothers.

"Why must he be like this?" Robbie lamented to himself. Wishing for all the world that his brother was having a horrible time to rival his own experience.

Wednesday came and went in much of the same fashion.

"You want to go back in the cage?" Robbie remarked, intending the comment to come off as threatening. Not that Ella seemed very threatened by anything he did. Still it got the child to simmer down a little bit. She was watching him with fascination as he dug out another man-sized pit.

"The kangaroo will fall in there?" She asked curiously, having got a lot better at pronouncing the word.

"Yes, and then we bag him up and toss him straight out of Lazytown." Robbie explained easily. He had not been ready for the barrage of questions that Ella came out with after that.

Like, "What if he just walks back into town?" and "Can't he hop over this hole? Can't he climb out?" or worst of all. "What if you hurt the kangaroo when he falls in?"

"What have I told you about questions?" Robbie demanded, one hand on his hip and the other still firmly atop the shovel. Ella gave him one of those curious looks she was so fond of.

"Papa said you asked lots of questions when you were my age."

"Yes well your father-!" Robbie began to say something derogatory before the words eventually sank in, pulling him up short. "Come again?"

Ella, pleased by Robbie's curiosity, stood back up. She dusted off her dress, yet another one fashioned for her by the villain she'd been left with. This one had more pink in it, as much as Robbie would allow before he thought it became too reminiscent of Pinky's clothes. Ella's was all frills and fanned out skirts, thankfully making the comparison less obvious.

"Papa always said you asked about anything and everything." Ella told him, reciting the final three words in a tone that almost matched Glanni's, her little finger pointed in the air as if to mimic his brother's mannerism as she parroted him. "Curious, and inquisitive, had to ask everything twice, my little brother. Your uncle." She echoed with a huge smile on her face. "Papa spoke lots about you!"

"Did he now…?" Robbie grumbled, pushing the shovel back into the weak soil with about as half as much enthusiasm as he had used prior to this conversation. "All lies I'd bet."

For a moment there was silence. Beautiful, blissful silence. A sound Robbie had nearly forgotten amongst all this chaos. And then very quietly Ella spoke again. "He said you were good." She told him gently. "Told me I could be safe with you."

" _Good_?" Robbie sputtered, laughing at the mere idea. "Then he's clearly just as big a liar as he's always be-" Robbie stopped. Looked back at his niece, following him with those piercing purple eyes of hers.

He could imagine the things Glanni would have told his daughter. All the horrible stories, twisted to make Glanni look incredible and himself look like complete garbage. It was just the way big brothers seemed to be and Glanni had never shied away from being a particularly nasty brother at that. But just thinking that Glanni took the time to talk to this child he hadn't wanted at all, and that he'd used that time to talk about _Robbie_ – well it left him at a bit of a loss.

Let alone that he told this girl he could be trusted.

"Must have been planning to ditch her with me from the start." Robbie muttered under his breath. He didn't want Ella hearing and making a fuss, she seemed to think the world of his brother and Robbie wanted nothing to do with the water works that would come with bad mouthing Glanni.

Frowning Robbie reluctantly looked back at Ella. "Well you'd be a lot safer if you'd stop getting into so much trouble." He eventually said with a dramatic sigh.

Ella on the other hand was overly pleased by this. "Rule number one." She recited gleefully, not that she seemed all that inclined to actually follow the rules. Only when it suited her – typical.

Wednesday had not been their day either and Robbie found himself boarding up the manhole after Ella very nearly slipped into it herself. Chasing a moth of all things! She'd apologised profusely and suggested they could still use the trap but Robbie's head was now full of scenarios of her little body tripping in and her breaking her equally little skull.

Nope. The hole was covered with as many planks of wood as Robbie could spare. No child of his was falling into this!

They'd have to try something else…


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Thursday came around Robbie was running low on patience and ideas.

It seemed no matter what he did it seemed something went wrong. Something always got in the way. This was honestly no different to his usual plans, but never before had so many of his schemes died before Sportacus even had the chance to fall for them.

This was it, he thought, today was going to be the day. Robbie might have told himself that everyday leading up to that Thursday, but gosh dang it if this time he wasn't right!

Today Robbie decided to go to the heart of the problem. Sportakook's blimp in the sky. So he's packed a few key items up and hauled both himself and Ella up out of the lair for yet another attempt. When he pointed the floating monstrosity out to the young girl, her eyes had flashed with tentative awe.

"It's like a hot air balloon!" She crowed after a moment of thought and Robbie quickly corrected her. Ten used an airship and it was an overzealous monstrosity of a thing at that. He had practically no need to be floating over their heads like an ever-present thorn in Robbie's side. The only good thing to come out of that ship was the extra distance it put between his home and the jumping elf's.

The plan was a simple one. Sportacus was no doubt going to use this lovely day for some silly outdoor activity or another. Robbie and Ella would wait down below until that time came and then once the hero was out, Robbie would scamper his way inside and send the whole thing crashing down.

"You've never tried this before?" Ella inquired, dragging up quite a few unpleasant memories of failed attempts. None of which he would admit to.

"Eat your cake." He said instead, pushing the snack over to the child to distract her. This was the closest Robbie had gotten to having a picnic in years. Sitting on the grassy hillside, just awaiting the moment the blimp's door would fly open and a ladder would unfurl. All the while he and Ella stared up at the clouds and ate junk food.

It wasn't an unpleasant experience. In fact, for lack of a better term, it was… nice.

Ella wasn't a loud child by nature and now that she wasn't rolling in the grass or pestering her uncle for entertainment, she quietly sat and stared at the sky. There was no chatter between them and Robbie felt himself dozing off every now and then, only forcing himself not to fall asleep for fear the girl would pull another vanishing act if his eyes were shut for too long.

For once Robbie felt like the town had fallen quiet and still enough for his tastes and the nearest child to him wasn't being difficult. Had he not been so focused on what he'd do once he got onto that airship, Robbie might have revelled in that small mercy just a little longer.

"Uncle." Ella's voice was soft and far away as Robbie found himself very nearly nodding off. "Uncle, the kangaroo is coming out."

Then he was wide-awake.

Right back at attention, Robbie's gaze snapped upwards to the blimp and sure enough there was Sportacus, climbing his way down the ladder. He didn't seem to be in much of a rush, which meant no saving was involved today. More likely he was coming down to play with those kids again. Although he did seem to be moving touch slower than he usually ever did. Robbie chose not to dwell on that as he instead fixated on the ladder left hanging in the open air.

That was his ticket in and Sportacus's ticket out. "No funny business now." Robbie instructed as he eased back to his feet, all the bones clicking and cracking back into place as he did. "This will only take a moment."

Ella eyed the rope ladder with about as much enthusiasm as Robbie looked upon sportscandy with. "All that way up?" She asked suspiciously. "Aren't you afraid being up that high?" A perfectly reasonable fear that Robbie happened to share with his brother.

"The key." Robbie explained while stretching out his arms in preparation of the climb ahead. "Is to not look down."

"That doesn't sound very logical."

"Big words are reserved for adults!" Robbie chided sharply as he took the first rung of the ladder into his hand. The blasted child had him thinking about how far up the blimp was now. Causing his hands to shake horribly, he was no more than halfway up when his palms were so sweaty that slipping became an honest to god possibility. Taking his own advice proved paramount as he inched up the ladder, once again cursing Sportacus for having a home in the sky to begin with.

By the time he crawled his way onto the ship, panting and shaking with the effort of just not looking down, Robbie was beginning to rethink his life choices. But he was here now, it was all worth it just to be in the flying monstrosity and now he could crash it into the ground. Sportaloser couldn't do anything without this ridiculous thing.

The inside of the blimp was the same as ever. Completely barren and sterile. Robbie found it strange that someone as energetic and enthusiastic as the little blue ball of smiles was able to live in such a cold looking place. It felt oddly detached from its owner.

But he wasn't here to scrutinize Sportacus's complete lack of interior decorating skills. He was to destroy the place and so Robbie made his way over to the control consol. How hard could it be to just angle the blimp down and leave the rest to gravity? He'd tried letting all the air out in the past, to mixed results. Today he was hoping he could simply send it hurdling down.

Having learnt his lesson about almost demolishing Lazytown in the process, Robbie decided he'd need to take the ship out into the farming land before he attempted anything drastic. Lazytown was, after all, still his home and he didn't want this thing to crash into it anymore than the other townsfolk did.

The first part was easy, ripping up its anchor was a mostly physical endeavour that required little input from the computerised section of the control. Robbie was pleased when the airship began to float aimlessly across the sky, allowing him leave to direct it wherever he pleased from there. The knowledge that they'd be going higher from the ground wasn't comforting but Robbie did try not to dwell on that for any amount of time.

Now how to actually drive this thing. Would it even accept his commands if he wasn't speaking them in the elf's tongue? Uncertain Robbie's hands hovered over the control panel. He'd designed enough remotes and torn apart his fair share of machines in the past, this was hardly beyond his abilities. He just had to be careful not to somehow ruin himself by underestimating an elven design. That's what this was right?

"Didn't know elves had moved out of the dark ages." Robbie muttered unfavourably under his breath. Oh yes, elves were wonderful craftsmen and even more talented with magic – but human technology of all things? Well it just seemed a little too modern for them.

"Wow…" Robbie almost jumped out of his skin upon hearing the small exclamation of wonder. "This place is so big!" Ella went on to say, either unaware or flat out ignoring her uncles gasping coughs. She'd come all the way up here to see what sort of place a blimp was. "…and empty." She added almost as an afterthought just as Robbie leapt out of the pilot's seat.

"What are you doing here?" He shrieked and Ella once again gave him that look. "Why do you never listen to me, you said you would!"

He was beginning to take notice of it more and more often. It was that baffled little stare she'd give him at times that seemed to imply he was the one with the problem. She seemed to genuinely believe she was the one behaving normally. Like there was some sort of nonverbal cue that he was missing time and time again.

"Uncle, do you not know how to play?" Ella asked quietly.

"Robbie Rotten does not _play_!" Why did no one seem to understand that? Without a second thought Robbie began trying out usher Ella out of the airship. "You can't be in here, what about heights? You were the one that said heights were scary!"

"For you." She clarified and Robbie had to keep his tongue in check otherwise he might have said something decided not child friendly. "Why do we have to leave? We just got here."

"It's not safe up here." Robbie rationalised sharply as he began to herd Ella back towards the door and rope.

"Because it's an elf home? It feels fine to me."

Robbie paused. Curiosity nagged at him, because that seemed a little bit unusual to him. Pickpocketing and lying – that he understood. Glanni would naturally fill his child's head with that sort of information. But talk of elves in such a factual way?

"Where did you pick that up-?"

He should have known better than to move his eyes downwards. Robbie only meant to glance down at Ella while questioning her, but his eyes caught the edge of the ledge and the emptiness bellow it. Suddenly his chest was tight, hands shaking and legs locked in place. He couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. They were just so high up, his head was spinning.

Distantly Robbie thought he heard Ella speaking to him, calling his name. He even remembered thinking that she'd gotten much better at pronouncing the R in his name just before his world tilted off its axis. His vision was swimming and Robbie thought it was just him as his weight pulled him over the edge. He didn't even realise the ship had lurked violently under his feet.

However what Robbie did notice was that Ella was falling with him. Her little feet lifting off the ground as the ship tossed both of them off balance. She'd fall right over the edge if he didn't do something.

All that way down…Robbie knew their family was perfectly capable of taking serious abuse, but a fall from this height would no doubt kill the girl.

In a moment of startling clarity, Robbie seized the back of Ella's dress and with all his might hurled the young child as hard as he could in the opposite direction. Back towards the still open hatch on the airship, back to safety and away from the ledge. The weight of the child being tossed back inside only pushed Robbie further over the edge, cause and affect his mind mutely supplied.

But between those few seconds the thought took the time to register and the action carried out, Robbie saw Ella land safely back inside. Her eyes wide and mouth open as if she was trying to scream something as she reached uselessly back in his direction.

Then he was falling.

Robbie had a small sense of déjà vu as the air whipped past his head. This would not be the first time he fell from Sportacus's airship and knowing his life, it would not be the last. It was purely his self-preservation instincts that pushed Robbie to reach out, grappling for anything to stop his decent. What his desperately grasping hands found was the rope ladder.

Without a second of hesitation Robbie clamped his hands shut on the ladder, wincing as the abrupt stop very nearly jostled his shoulder out of its socket. It was too much for his weak muscles and his fingers slipped down a few more rungs under he was clinging onto the last one of the ladder, still far too high off the ground. But he wasn't falling anymore.

Sick and hanging precariously a good bone breaking distance away from the earth, Robbie could only hang on for dear life.

Far up above, he could just make out his niece's face looking down at him and he thought he heard her shouting his name. He wanted to shout back to get away from the edge should the ship sudden tilt off balance again but when he opened his mouth all that came out was a small whine of pain. His shoulder hadn't been dislocated as far as he could tell but he was now aware of just how much it hurt.

The simple act of holding on to the ladder was hurting him and Robbie didn't trust himself to keep holding for very long. He wasn't able to do a single pull-up, let alone drag himself back to safety.

Where there should have been panic and screaming, Robbie could only seem to form one coherent thought.

 _Oh, wonderful. My niece is about to witness me falling to my death._ The thought sat heavily in his mind for a few seconds before another joined it. _And I'm_ still _the better adult figure in her life._

It was an amazing thing really. That Robbie Rotten could be dangling over what very well might be his grave, and he still somehow found the time to curse his older brother more vehemently than he ever had Sportacus.

But of course…

"Robbie!"

…and they were back to cursing Sportacus.

What was he doing here? Robbie thought viciously, just able to peer over his shoulder and down at the ground where the blue idiot was looking up at him with an extremely concerned expression. Oh. Of course, that little crystal of his was going berserk and Robbie might have been hanging off part of Sportacus's property.

"Robbie what are you doing up there?" Sportacus called and Robbie could have thrown the sport-obsessed lunatic off the airship himself.

"What does it _look_ like I'm doing?" He roared back, only to remember how bad an idea it was to look down. His stomach churned unpleasantly and he had to look back up away from Sportacus or risk losing all the cake he'd eaten that day. "Get me down from here!"

"Let go." Sportacus called back up and Robbie was once again furious. Sportacus knew damn well he wasn't going to do that. He had more than enough experience with Robbie not trusting him to know he wasn't about to let go on the slim chance he'd be caught. Anyone could have told Robbie he would be safe with Sportacus, but anyone could sod off for all that Robbie cared.

He wasn't letting go. He wasn't going to trust his life to an elf. To a number hero no less!

"Uncle!" But then he was looking up again, just able to see Ella at the top of the ladder looking to the world like a girl on a mission. It took him a second to realise she was going to climb down to try and get to him. Oh no, no, no, no, no…

"Ella, don't!" He shouted urgently and the child froze instantly. One foot already lowered to the first wrung but going no further once her uncles order registered in her mind. "It's not safe!"

Then she was like a statue. Even from this distance Robbie could see the way every single muscle in her tiny body clamped up tight. It didn't even like she seemed brave enough to breathe in that moment. She was terrified because he'd told her she should be and now they were both stuck

They were both stuck and…he could not believe his life had come to this…but they might have needed a hero.

"The brat!" Robbie called back down to Sportacus, furious with the very world at that moment. He hated everyone and everything that had brought him to this moment of actually asking for help – from the elf no less. But he couldn't get to Ella and if she fell there was no force on this planet that he could summon up to be able to catch her. His body just wouldn't be able to do it, so he resorted to using a sturdier body to save Ella. "Get the girl!"

If Sportacus was surprised to see another child, one not already belonging to his adoring fanbase, he didn't let that distract from the job at hand. Say what you will about Sportacus and all the empty space between his ears, he certainly knew how to move when the situation demanded it.

Under the shade of his now free roaming home, Sportacus dug his heels into the dirt before kicking up off the ground, breaking into a dead sprint. He had to get to the airship, pull it down to ground level and get Robbie and the child back to safety. Why Robbie was hanging from the rope ladder in the first place and where the girl had come from – none of that was important until both parties were safely on a solid surface again.

"Ship!" Sportacus shouted, almost worried it wouldn't be able to respond to his commands from the distance it had drifted. "Apple!" There was a small hesitation where Sportacus's heart leapt into his throat, fearing that he'd have to try and make do without the sportscandy. Then a compartment on the ship slid open and out shot a shiny red apple.

"Alright Robbie, just hold on tight!" He could have sworn he heard Robbie grumble something back about doing just that. But the extra warning would be needed for what came next.

The distance between himself and the ladder was nothing to scoff at and Sportacus needed to first get a little higher. A quick glance around and Sportacus located the tallest tree in the vicinity, making a beeline for it. Scaling the branches was easy and the whole time he kept his eyes on where the apple was falling. Sportacus reached up to grab it, taking a quick bite of the fruit before kicking up off the tree branch. The whole movement took place in little under four seconds, but each second was one that risked the ship moving further away or the situation becoming more dangerous.

His crystal was still buzzing when Sportacus's hand caught Robbie's ankle. He cringed in sympathy for the man as he let out a surprised shriek but didn't stop to apologise. Instead he used that small anchor to launch himself up and grab hold of the ladder himself. Briefly he looked back down at Robbie, checking to see what shape he was in.

It didn't look like he was having any amount of fun, but at least he didn't seem to be too injured. Reaching down Sportacus hooked his arm under Robbie's and hoisted him up higher on the ladder. Giving him more room to put his feet down so that he was no longer clinging for dear life.

"I told you-!" Robbie began to spit but Sportacus hadn't stopped moving. He tried to get out something along the lines of 'I know' but the words got lost in his rush to scale the ladder back to the airship.

Once he had the ladder under his feet Sportacus reached the out of control airship in no time. Pulling himself up onto the ledge he found the child. She was huddled against the edge of the airship, looking like she was just trying not to fall off as the ship continued to tilt further and further onto an angle.

"Hey…" Sportacus acted without thinking, attempting to reach out and comfort the scared child. Except when her head jerked up at the sound of his voice, the child shrieked. The sound was so loud it surely must have reached Robbie back down at the bottom of the ladder.

Wincing Sportacus tried again, attempting to make everything about him as nonthreatening and reassuring as he possible could. "It's alright, hey, you're okay." He tried and the girl curled tighter in on herself, arms up like a shield. "We're going to get you out of here, you'll be okay." Normally the kids perked up the moment he arrived, but this little girl didn't seem any happier with him there.

Glancing back up at the ship and seeing it was still going to go about its business slowly turning itself over, Sportacus had to momentarily forgo the attempts to sooth the child and instead focus more on saving her. With a quick apology Sportacus scooped the unknown girl up and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't scream again. Instead of squirming or making a fuss, she curled into a tight ball against his chest, easily able to be carried with just one arm. Good, he was going to need a hand free to get this ship back on course.

Climbing his way back into the ship, having to account for the new angle he had to work with, Sportacus made his way back to the control panel, reaching for the wheel with one hand. It was awkward and he was acutely aware of how bad the crash would be if he couldn't get the ship back on track, but Sportacus managed to yank the wheel firmly in the opposite direction.

The ship shuddered, jolted and then sluggishly began to turn back. The strain of holding himself on balance with both a child and the ground tilted at the wrong angle gradually faded as the ship languidly righted itself with every turn of the wheel. Finally, his feet rest properly on the ground without the need for correction and everything was back up the right way.

Allowing himself a small breath of relief, Sportacus then focused on getting the ship to slowly head towards the ground. He knew that Robbie would need to be up down quickly, it didn't seem like he was climbing anywhere fast.

Finally, with everything back in order, the crystal calmed down before turning silent and Sportacus could turn his attention to the small shivering child in his arms. He got the sense he'd seen her somewhere before, the purple in her dress and the two black pigtails were familiar but he couldn't quite place it.

"There we go." Sportacus told her gently. "All safe."

Slowly the girl uncurled in his arms. She was still cradled to his chest but her legs unfurled and her head came back up to peer at the world around her. She looked about the airship which was no longer at a diagonal angle, and then to the man holding her. She looked at his arms with a puzzled expression and then to the ten on his chest.

"Ten?" She mumbled under the breath before looking up at Sportacus, taking him off guard with those bright eyes of hers. Curiously she studied his face before, much to his surprise, reaching up to pull on his moustache. Sportacus let out a half-hearted protest before laughing, she wasn't tugging hard but it was still rather invasive. But immediately her face lit up and all the uncertainty evaporated away. "Mustard Monkey!" She cheered excitedly before doing a double take down at his blue clothes. "…Blue Kangeroo?"

"I'm Sportacus." He introduced himself, his voice carrying with it a small amount of laughter. The girl was so young, perhaps no older than Ziggy was. "Who might you be?"

"Ella." She introduced herself excitedly, no longer the least bit afraid of him.

"Well alright, Ella. Let's get ourselves back down onto the ground. What do you say?" The child nodded enthusiastically but refused to be put down. Instead she hugged tighter to Sportacus's shoulder and he guessed the remaining trembling in her fingers was due to residual adrenaline. By the time the airship set down the shaking had subsided enough that he was confident she wouldn't fall is put down.

Once the ship was safely on the ground Sportacus adjusted his hold on the child and went out in search for Robbie, hoping he hadn't already scurried off. He tended to leave before Sportacus had the chance to really check up on him. But today it seemed he had stuck around, sitting on the ground massaging his shoulder. Sportacus paused, wondering if Robbie had been hurt during all the chaos.

It seemed his concerns were shared by the girl in his arms.

"Robbie!" She cried urgently, for the first time beginning to squirm. She kicked right out of Sportacus's arms, his surprise allowing her the small escape, and immediately she was rushing over to the grumpy villain. The man in question didn't seem the least bit surprised by the child rushing to his side. Unsurprised but clearly still irritated as she chanted his name in concern.

"Yes, yes, _me_." Robbie huffed angrily. "Pipe down kiddo. I've already got a headache without all his shouting."

Sportacus watched, unable to make sense of what he was seeing as Robbie roughly placed his hand atop the girl's head and ruffled her hair while continuing to mutter about her being quiet. All the while the girl clung to his side as tight as her little hands would allow.

"I'm fine, stop your whining." Robbie was saying as Sportacus approached the pair. Immediately he stopped speaking when catching sight of the baffled hero watching. With an angry huff he stood to his full height and reached down to pluck the girl up off the ground by the back of her dress. However, he'd done so with his left arm which, as Sportacus had suspected, was injured.

Hissing in pain Robbie corrected his mistake and instead scooped up little Ella with the other hand. It was a little more awkward using his less dominant hand but Robbie made do and still had the presence of mind to scowl at Sportacus.

"What do you want?" He snapped unpleasantly. "A thank you? Ha! Unlikely."

"No I…" Sportacus fumbled with his words which Robbie seemed to find suspicious as his eyebrows shot up on his forehead. "I didn't know you had a…" He searched for the right word, not wanting to imply anything and also unable to think of what would have a child with Robbie. "…sidekick." He settled for finally and Robbie scoffed.

"This brat couldn't be a sidekick if her life depended on it." Under his arm Ella squawked in protest only for Robbie to shoot her a quick glare. "Sidekicks follow instructions." He reminded her tightly and Ella fell silent, almost looking guilty.

That lasted all of five seconds before she was kicking out of Robbie's hold, much to the villain's frustration. Although he made no attempt to actually stop her once she was back on her own two feet, dusting out her dress.

"Excuse me, mister hero?" Sportacus was surprised when the young girl trotted right up to him and began to speak. Wholly unconcerned by her uncles ravings. With her little hands neatly clasped behind her back and an air of formality that children often tried to capture with more success than adults, the doll like child continued on calmly. "Could you lose please?" She asked him with a small frown. "Uncle Robbie tried very hard to win, could you please leave town for him?"

"Your uncle…?" Sportacus repeated in astonishment. He glanced between the child and Robbie looking for confirmation. What he got was a stiff glare and some uncomfortable fidgeting. Ella nodded without hesitation, continuing to look up at Sportacus expectantly.

"I…Well I'm sorry, Ella." Sportacus smiled apologetically, taking a knee in front of the small girl. "But I can't leave town, when there's trouble I've got to be here to help."

Ella frowned slightly, seeming to mull this over for a few seconds. Then an idea came to her and Ella glanced between her uncle and the hero before taking a few step forwards to whisper to Sportacus. "Maybe just for a little while?" She asked quietly. "He'll get bored if you're gone long anyway."

Sportacus started to smile, opening his mouth to say…well he couldn't be sure what he was about to say to something so adorable. It didn't matter because it seemed Robbie's patience had finally run its course and the tall man was there in an instant snatching Ella up off the ground.

"Alright that's quite enough of that!" He declared tightly. "Yes this little terror here is _my_ niece and I'll thank you and your ridiculous brood to stay away from my gene pool."

With that Robbie turned and began marching off in the opposite direction, the young girl coiled under his arm like a bag of apples. Ella was snickering, not sharing her uncle's bad temperament and Sportacus could only watch as she waved a cheeky goodbye to him and vanished with her uncle. His head was reeling, just thinking of Robbie having a niece and actively taking care of the child no less. Although knowing Robbie, taking care might be a little generous. His stomach did unpleasant little flips when he thought about what the girl's diet would consist of.

It was perhaps the longest Sportacus had stayed still for anything in his life. Left standing alone on the grassy hillside, just stunned by this new information.

Robbie was looking after a _child_.


	7. Chapter 7

_An unexpected letter had arrived in Busy City…_

…  
…

"Now listen here you little monster." Robbie began the day much like he had all the others, with a new set of rules so airtight that even his pest of a niece couldn't poke holes in them. "You're not going to cause any more disasters. We are going to have a nice quiet day down in the lair and you are not going to do anything to raise my blood pressure? Understood?"

Even as Ella agreed with a nod and smile, Robbie was suspicious. Perhaps she did not cause all these problems on purpose. Maybe it was just in the nature of all children to fill his life with one misery after the other.

The week had drained him of all his energy reserves and now he wanted nothing more than to spend the final day before the weekend napping, eating cake and watching infomercials. Thankfully it seemed Ella didn't feel the need to go outside and play, instead she'd settled down into a little world all her own. That creepy little bear she'd been shipped here with, tucked under her arm. The box she'd come in had been left by his favourite chair, positioned to be able to see the television and more importantly within his sight at all times.

Due to the box being packed with more stuffing than Robbie thought was sane or humanly possible, it had been a wonderful little playpen and napping area for Ella. Although now Robbie thought of it, he ought to have found somewhere better for the child to sleep. It hadn't crossed his mind because most nights he had collapsed on the lounge and Ella in the box.

But each day without fail he'd wake up with the girl nestled under his arm, having abandoned her box sometime in the night to sleep on the chair with him. For those few minutes he was awake before Ella, Robbie didn't move. He didn't so much as breathe most mornings, afraid of jostling Ella out of her light sleep. Only once she began to stir did Robbie begin complaining about the imagined pain of having her sleep on him.

She was never sorry and he was never really that annoyed in the first place. So they repeated this pattern the next night.

Although Robbie now thought it was high time he give her a proper place to sleep. The box was practically a bed in of itself but Robbie had watched more than enough television to know that if someone found out he had his niece sleeping in what was essentially a tiny coffin, he'd be in for the lecture of a lifetime. At best.

Adding this to the mental list of small chores he had to do that day, none of which he would strictly define as work, Robbie went about searching for food first. With a can of soda in his hand, Robbie dragged out one of his more frequently used machines.

The poor cake maker 3000 had been getting the work out of a lifetime since Ella arrived.

It already made enormous amounts of cake for him but Robbie was satisfied with his favourite flavour most days. Ella always seemed excited to try new ones and Robbie – obviously more than happy to show off his creations limitless potential for cake making – had indulged her requests for different cakes.

Although he would occasionally turn his nose up whens he asked for something like strawberry or lemon cakes. They were still technically cakes but if she expected even a shred of real fruit in them she was clearly out of her little mind.

Today was to be vanilla cake – back to the classics.

"Sportacus was nice." Ella mused out loud and Robbie choked on his soda. "Wasn't he?"

" _Nice_?" Robbie repeated shrilly once he'd coughed the liquid back out of his lungs. Turning to stare at the young girl over his shoulder Robbie expected to hear the punch line, but oh no, she was serious. "He's a menace!"

Ella giggled, kicking her feet aimlessly as she stared up at the ceiling of the lair. Looking to all the world like the most comfortable and contented child on the face of the planet. Robbie found this to also be suspicious. He knew children to be reckless, insatiable, energetic little monsters. But there didn't seem to be many things that bored Ella since she arrived.

She found her entertainment in little things, not exclusively things that brought Robbie grief. Ella could play in the grass till Robbie's tolerance ran thin and he could no longer stand by and bare witness to her ruining her clothes. Sometimes she could seem to be entertained just by listening to him speak. It didn't matter what he was saying most the time, he could have been rattling off the ingredients to double fudge cake – which he actually had been at one point – and she looked just as enthralled.

Then there was looking up. She seemed to take great joy in just being able to stare skyward, even now with a solid sheet of metal and who knows how much soil between her and the sky – Ella stared up.

It should have been a mercy, a gift he took without question, having a child so easily entertained. But Robbie was beginning to ask more questions.

At first he hadn't wanted to ask anything. Simply because he'd expected the child to magically be gone before the week was out. But it was now Friday and she didn't seem any closer to leaving than she'd been when she first arrived. So now questions began to swim in his head. Some about her, some about his brother – none of which she was likely to know the answers to.

"I think he's gentle." Ella announced after a while longer of staring at the ceiling. "He carried me gently."

"Oh? Is he now?" Robbie spat, hands landing flat on his hips as he stared down at the girl who had once again made herself at home on his orange lounge chair. "And what experience would you have to compare it to, huh?"

"You and papa carry me everywhere." Ella pointed out. "Although papa doesn't carry me under his arm like you do. You're the worst." And to top it off Ella said those words with the brightest little grin etched onto her face.

"Lets see if you ever get carried again then, brat." Robbie huffed, refusing to be put behind his brother and the sport freak for anything.

Although, the comment did prompt that curiosity in him again. Just trying to imagine Glanni even being in the same living space as this child, his offspring or not, was a little bit of a stretch. "My brother carried you? Amazing with those twig arms of his."

"Actually I think your arms are-"

"Not the point!" Robbie cut in quickly, not needing his ego to take abuse from someone that was barely out of nappies. "The point is…" He struggled for a way to say it without coming off as too invested. There was no way he could pry without letting the child think he cared and that was infuriating. "…my brother is lazy."

He cast Ella a warning stare when she opened her mouth to no doubt remind him that he was the laziest. Yes he knew, thank you very much. "So what was he doing carrying you around?"

"Faster." Ella replied simply. "Papa said if I tripped we'd slow down, my little legs weren't fast enough. So he carried me."

"And where exactly was he off to in such a hurry?" Robbie grumbled and Ella's gaze gradually dropped down from the ceiling. With a flat stare she replied.

"We were always in a hurry." Ella's expression dimmed slightly and Robbie startled when he saw a frown forming on her face. He wanted to get that expression right off her face but Robbie had never been well versed in how to make children happy of all things. "I should know better than to trust a hero. I'm sorry."

Robbie cringed, a creeping sense of disgust welling up inside of him. He could feel it, the moment where he'd have to say something he absolutely did not want to say. But he couldn't _not_ say it when hearing Ella say things like that. He couldn't decide if it was better or worse when she resembled him as a child more than her father.

"Technically…" He began, the words hurting him even as he spoke them. The tasted foul in his mouth, but still Robbie persevered. "…trusting Sportaflop is not the _worst_ idea…strictly speaking."

Slowly Ella's large eyes began to shine excitedly, looking happier with every word that dragged itself agonizingly out of Robbie motuh. It was almost worth the torture of saying something even remotely positive about Sportacus, just to get that wretched frown to turn back into a smile.

As if he could somehow shake off the lingering feelings of mortification, Robbie straightened back up sharply and tried to distract from what he'd just said. "But never trust any of the so called food he offers. Yikes, it'll kill faster than the fall from that blimp would have. We have much better food down here."

"Never take anything from a hero." Ella repeated, as if committing the rule to memory or at the very least reciting one she already knew. "And never say thank you?"

Robbie paused, glanced back at Ella thoughtfully. "Optional." He decided with a shrug before going to fetch the cake the machine had spat out. He heard Ella murmuring something about not owing heroes things but the words were so quiet he missed most of it.

When he returned with cake Ella did smile but he noticed she seemed a little less enthused by their usual breakfast. Granted they were eating it at midday, but it was the first meal since they woke up – ergo, breakfast. It never crossed his mind that she might be tiring of cake.

"Uncle Robbie?" Nervous was a bit of a new look for Ella and while Robbie thought that should set off a new wave alarms in his head, he found himself almost endeared by it. "Can I be your sidekick?"

His chest tightened and Robbie genuinely didn't have any words for a few seconds. It took a moment for him to realise the painful feel accosting him was some horrible concoction of pride, endearment and flattery. She wasn't just saying that, she meant it. A child wanted to be his sidekick. A child idolised him. A child thought _he_ was the cool one.

It was only by some small miracle that Robbie didn't start getting weepy.

"Well if you're going to pestering me all day long you might as well be taught how to be a proper sidekick!" He declared, ignoring how thick his voice had become. "And sidekicks eat their cake for breakfast." He added, pushing the plate over to Ella. "They also don't sit in the bosses chair when he wants it."

Ella huffed, pouting a little bit as she most certainly didn't want to give up her favourite spot. They couldn't both have it. Reluctantly she slid off of the chair, careful not to drop her cake and glared as her uncle took her place.

She looked ready to try and make a home of her box when Robbie surprised her by reaching down to pull her up onto his lap. Realising he was willing to share, Ella let out a squeal of delight and grinned up at her uncle.

"Don't get used to it." Far too little and far too late.

"When papa gets here we'll need more seats." Ella said gleefully as she began to attack the cake with her fork. She had the worst habit of dismantling the thing before a single bite got into her mouth. The needless violence of the display Robbie could live with, but the mess would kill him one day.

Robbie didn't correct Ella. It only occurred to him when she said that that she thought Glanni was coming to get her. She thought…she thought she hadn't been dumped.

She didn't know.

Suddenly the tightness in Robbie's chest took on a far less bittersweet feel and instead began to hurt in earnest. Every nasty thing he'd ever said about or to Glanni now felt justified, it felt lacking for all the nasty things he should have said. Might have too, if there was not currently a child within earshot.

He hadn't even touched his own cake, instead looking down at Ella as he grappled with what to say. Should he tell her? How was he supposed to tell this child that her father – his _brother_ – didn't want her?

Short answer – he didn't.

"He can sit on the floor for all I care." Was what he said instead and even when Ella's little snicker forced a smile out of him, it felt hollow.

…  
…

Friday couldn't have come slow enough for Stephanie.

The long drag of each day felt excruciating, but at the same time it was a small relief. Wanting something and being terrified for when it finally came did tend to put a person into a very awkward position. But regardless, Friday had in fact arrived and now the hours trickled by even slower than before.

Morning was the worst part, Stephanie was jittery from the moment she stepped out of bed and the preparation for the last day of school for the week went by with a few incidents. She wasn't paying attention to her food and ended up getting honey in her hair when she tried to make toast that morning. She put her shoes on the wrong two feet and after that she forgot her lunch.

Stephanie knew she was a mess and more than that she knew she was the only one feeling this way. Everyone else had his or her pen-pals. They all knew what to expect but she didn't know if she'd even get a letter with the other kids today. If she did, what type of letter would it be? Who would write back to her? What would they say? What would _she_ write back?

Despite her constant worrying Stephanie still got prepared for school as best she could, her uncle lingering to offer a hand where he could. She appreciated how much Milford cared and how hard he tried to brighten her mood, but it didn't seem to be working. Sportacus had been able to calm her down earlier that week but since then she'd had plenty of time to work herself back into a state of panic. She could have used his help again—oh.

"Sportacus!" Stephanie very nearly stepped into the town hero, not having expected to find him right outside her front door, hand raised to knock just before it had open.

"Good morning Stephanie." Sportacus's face broke out into one of those sunny smiles he seemed so good at. And yet this one seemed…strained. "Is mayor Meanswell home? I need to see him."

"My uncle?" Stephanie didn't notice the way Sportacus seemed to start at the word. "Yeah, he's in his office. What do you need to talk to him about?"

Stephanie stepped aside, allowing Sportacus inside and she was a little surprised he stepped in rather than flipping or jumping inside. Sportacus glanced around briefly before heading for the office, although he did pause to answer Stephanie as vaguely as was humanly possible. "I just…ah, well I just thought I should talk to the mayor about…things."

Had Stephanie not already been wound tightly enough that breathing felt hard to breathe, Sportacus fumbling over his words would have done it. "Is something wrong? Is there trouble?" Stephanie asked quickly, probing for some sort of explanation as concern flooded her. Sportacus's smile was tight and looked almost as stressed as Stephanie felt.

"No, no, everything is alright. I just…" Sportacus had never been in the habit of lying or keeping secrets and with Stephanie looked up at him expectantly he felt his resolve crumbling. "It's about Robbie." He admitted slowly. He saw the alarm shine in Stephanie's eyes and quickly tried to amend his slip. "He's fine, no one is in trouble…I think. He just…"

Taking a deep breath, Sportacus simply bit the bullet and said it. "He's looking after a child. A little girl. His niece."

Stephanie…well she didn't know what to think at first. Her initial reaction was disbelief. Maybe Sportacus was wrong or she'd misheard him or there'd been a misunderstanding. But Sportacus made it pretty clear what he meant. The next wave of emotion was just confusion, trying to imagine the scenario that Sportacus was describing and she simply couldn't.

Robbie Rotten – minding a child.

It just didn't seem real and suddenly Stephanie's head was full of these horrible, horrible ideas. Eating nothing but cake for days on end. Never being allowed to laugh or play. Being so bored and lonely that any child would surely grow up to be just as lazy and bitter as Robbie was.

"What are we going to do?" Stephanie asked urgently, not understanding why Sportacus just seemed a little bit uncomfortable when he should have been just as panicked as she was. He was supposed to save people, didn't this count? The child wouldn't be eating well, she wouldn't be able to have fun, she wouldn't be going to school – she wouldn't have any friends.

They had to do _something_.

Sportacus had expected this sort of reaction and he couldn't really fault Stephanie for worrying. He'd been a little surprised, well extremely surprised honestly, and all the concerns that were currently flying through Stephanie's head already pass through his.

Robbie could barely look after himself and he had such an aversion to all things healthy and good that it was hard to imagine him being able to care for a child.

Which was why he's come to Milford. The mayor might have been a little bit clumsy at times but he had a good heart and frequently – when the children were concerned – he made very levelheaded decisions. Milford genuinely cared about each of the people in his town and he would now better than Sportacus how to handle a situation like this. They all had their strong suits – family affairs were not Sportacus's.

"I'm sure Robbie is trying very hard." Sportacus reasoned but Stephanie's face had set into that stubborn look and Sportacus knew she wasn't going to be satisfied with that. "Perhaps we can offer him help. Everyone in town would be more than happy to pitch in if he needs anything to look after little Ella." Which was true. Robbie Rotten, for all his nasty tricks, had never been disliked by the townspeople.

At times his schemes could go too far and people could get angry – but they did not hate Robbie. More importantly everyone in town had a good heart and if it was to help a child then everyone would be willing to put aside their differences to lend a hand. If Robbie would actually accept that help or not…well that was a little less certain.

Looking for an out of this uncomfortable conversation Sportacus glanced to the clock on the wall. "Stephanie you're going to be late for school, you should get going. Miss Busybody won't wait, you know that. Go on, I'm sure your uncle and I will be able to handle this."

Reluctantly Stephanie followed Sportacus's gaze to the clock and sure enough she was already behind schedule. To get to school in time she'd have to run the whole way. No problem, she likely would have run anyway, now buzzing with the excitement of this new information. She wanted to tell all the other kids and besides her understandable concerns over Robbie's guardian abilities – this also meant they might have a new child in town with which to play with.

Still Stephanie hesitated by the front door, staring after Sportacus. She wanted to be involved, wanted to help in some way. The longer she thought about what living with Robbie must entail – the more passionate she became that they should do something.

With new ideas flying around her mind, Stephanie took off in the direction of the school. She began practicing what she'd say to the other kids and how she'd say it. Should it be told as some grand rescue mission from Robbie's lair? Or no, maybe it was better told as a chance to meet a new friend? Stephanie was still practicing how she'd deliver the news as she came rushing into the school building, mere seconds before the bell rang shrilly over head.

Stingy, Ziggy, Trixie and Pixel were all there already, no doubt having gotten there much earlier than she had. Stephanie opened her mouth as she walked into the classroom, preparing to let out the most well rehearsed of her announcements when Miss Busybody came in directly behind her, momentarily knocking the words out of her head.

"Mail, children!" She called warmly and suddenly Stephanie couldn't remember a single one of the practiced speeches she had.

In her excitement Stephanie had almost entirely forgotten her earlier anxieties about the letters. It all came rushing back at once and Stephanie almost wobbled off balance as she eyed the bundle of letters in miss Busybody's hands.

Stingy was the first to ask for his and while Stephanie heard him asking and saw Miss Busybody hand over the letter, Stephanie was still a million miles away. She thought she'd dealt with all of her insecurities but they were assaulting her with renewed vigor as she saw each letter get handed out one by one. Next came Trixie's, then Pixel's and finally Ziggy – who happily claimed his cousin was the one writing to him.

Then gradually Stephanie gathered the courage to speak. "Miss Busybody?" She asked quietly, wishing she didn't sound as nervous as she felt. "Is there…Is there one for…?"

"Oh! Stephanie, why yes. Here's your letter." Miss Busybody smiled in a decidedly oblivious way and handed over the final letter to Stephanie.

At first Stephanie only held the letter, staring at his as though it might suddenly evaporate right out of her fingers. But it was real. There was her name on the front written in bold lettering. Someone had actually written back to her and all at once Stephanie's heart began to beat wildly in her chest. Someone had answered her.

Without a word Stephanie walked to her seat, eyes glued on the simply packaged letter and all thoughts of Robbie far from her mind. All that seemed to matter was the letter.

The letter itself was extraordinarily plain on the outside. A simple creamy envelope that was about as standard as anyone could expect. Although Stephanie noticed her name had been written in red ink. It was so dark and thick that she'd initially mistaken it for a traditional black pen but upon close inspection in the light it was clearly red.

Curious to see if the rest of the letter was written in the same ink, Stephanie worked the envelope open. Being more careful than what was strictly necessary as she gingerly peeled it open, unwilling to let it tear.

 _Dear Stephanie._

 _It was so nice to hear from you, we weren't expecting an extra letter to arrive at the school. Most of the children are already paired up with a pen-pal, I hope you don't mind me being the one to write back to you._

 _I was excited to hear about Lazytown again, I actually used to spend a lot of time there when I was younger. I miss it often, the city is exciting, yes, but nothing seems to compare to home. In my experience home is the place you think of most often and most fondly. I feel like Lazytown is still my home, so it is nice to hear that it is just as pleasant as it has always been._

 _Tell me, how is the hero of that town faring?_

 _In Busy City there is no shortage of troublemakers, in fact the city has a hero all its own although sometimes I worry he might be stretched a little too thin. Help is always appreciated and with some of the more colorful types running around, he frequently needs lots of it. I am not making the city out to be very inviting, but I promise you its not all that terrible. There are so many people and so much energy – you can practically feel it in the air. I think you'd like it very much here, Stephanie._

 _But Lazytown – at least as I knew it – could be kept very well behaved in the way the city cannot.  
Tell me, is everything alright there?_

 _Please write back. I look forward to hearing from you._

 _\- B_

And for a while Stephanie couldn't think of anything else besides doing just that. Writing up a letter the moment she had a pen in hand. It was all she could think of, all thoughts of an unknown child and Robbie's lair flying from her mind.

…  
…

Back at the mayor's house, Sportacus was in the unfortunate position of being offered tea.

Which he had accepted as a kind of courtesy and then immediately regretted it when he could no longer spend the visit jumping onto furniture or doing pushups. The situation was one that required he sit, cup clasped tightly between his hands, and try not to fidget. Which became harder with every passing moment.

Milford on the other hand seemed quite content to add sugar to his tea and sip it at his own pace. Normally he was so busy trying to keep the town in order and still somehow keep up with all Miss Busybody's requests. So the moment of solace was a rare one that Sportacus did not feel entitled to ruin with his need to keep moving.

If only he had been there under kinder circumstances.

"How old is she?" Milford asked after a pause had fallen between them. Like Stephanie he'd been surprised to hear what Sportacus had to say, although Milford had taken it in and mulled it over with more restraint than his niece had.

"I'm not sure." He replied honestly. "Maybe four or five years old."

"And you say she's Robbie's niece? Ella, was it?"

"Yes. She called him uncle and he said so himself." Sportacus confirmed.

The questions continued and Sportacus was running out of solid answers.

"Where is her family? Her parents." He didn't know. "How long will she be staying in Lazytown?" He couldn't say. "How long has she been here?" He could only guess.

Then finally Milford set down his teacup and looked at Sportacus with an expression he'd seen maybe only three times prior and wished he'd never seen at all. "Is she safe?" He asked sternly and Sportacus hesitated.

Instinctually he wanted to leap up and claim that Robbie would look after her. That she would be just fine with him. That Robbie, for all his faults, could be a good uncle. But the words refused to come out.

The crystal on his chest felt heavy and Sportacus remained silent – staring down at the black tea in his cup. He didn't know, he just didn't.

Milford let out a small sigh and eased back into his chair to think for a few seconds. "Mister Rotten may not be a truly terrible man, Sportacus." He began evenly and Sportacus could feel the weight of his words beginning to press down on him. "And he may never mean to truly harm any child. But I do not believe he would want to, or indeed be able to, care for a girl so young."

That urge to defend Robbie still welled up inside of Sportacus but alongside it was acceptance. Because – no matter how much he wished otherwise – Sportacus believed the same.

If he feared for Robbie's own health and safety when looking after himself, how could he very well entrust a small human to the man?

"Robbie would never-" Sportacus began but Milford met him with a stern look and Sportacus found himself dearly wishing he didn't have to also know the serious side of their sweet natured mayor. But when the children were at stake, even bumbling Milford was a force to be reckoned with.

"I understand that you may not like it, Sportacus. But I believe the girl – for the time being – should be brought into town. Perhaps mister Rotten will be able to show he is capable of taking care of her, but until then we cannot allow even the slightest chance that this child is not being sheltered and properly cared for."

And reluctantly he agreed.

Milford finished his tea while Sportacus had barely touched his and with that agreement reached Milford eased out of his seat and began what Sportacus could only describe as a plan of action. He watched in silence as Milford pulled out some of the town plans, including a map, likely looking for a place that he could use to shelter Ella once she was in the care of the town. If she did intend to stay for years to come then she would eventually need a home and if it turned out Robbie's lair was not on the table she would need a house.

While the mayor looked over these plans Sportacus let his own thoughts roam over the possibilities. He didn't know what to expect, perhaps Robbie would be relieved to have the girl taken off his hands? That certainly seemed like what Robbie Rotten would want, but when Sportacus thought about the girl an her uncle, he remembered Robbie shouting for him to save Ella and then patting her on the head once they were safe.

He remembered the smile that shone through his words, past all his irritation when he called her a brat. Sportacus remembered how worried Ella had been over her uncle, how earnestly she'd asked him to leave town just to give Robbie something to celebrate for a little while. All of it seemed like the behavior of a happy child. A girl that was happy to be with her uncle, a child that didn't feel neglected or alone in the slightest.

Granted a well cared for child wouldn't have ended up on a nearly crashing airship, but Robbie had always had a knack for that sort of thing. Perhaps there in lie the problem… It was possible that Robbie really was trying his best and just thinking that his best wasn't enough made Sportacus's chest ache.

"Sportacus, I will not ask you to do anything else on the matter. You do so much for the town as is, and it is not your responsibility to-"

"Please." Sportacus broke in quietly. "I want to be the one to talk to him."

Milford glanced up at the sullen hero and his own expression softened in sympathy. He did not feel any disdain towards Robbie either, but they had to think of the welfare of the child first. Sportacus would be the most sympathetic, the one most likely to appeal to Robbie and genuinely appreciate that he was in fact the girl's family. Milford reluctantly conceded.

"Alright, Sportacus. Please ask mister Rotten to give little Ella over to the town…at least for the time being. Hopefully she will be able to be handed back to him in due time." The words were supposed to be soothing, gentle even, but Sportacus looked no happier and Milford felt no happier. Again he reminded himself it was for the sake of a young girl. "If you can, perhaps find out where her parents are. If they're coming to get her soon." Leaving Ella in Robbie's care for a few days might have been alright, but any longer than that and they might be leaving her in harms way. Intentional from Robbie or not.

Despite what he might have believed, a child could not be raised on cake.

Nodding without another word Sportacus eased out of his seat and bowed slightly, hand pressed over his crystal.

Milford startled, he hadn't seen that pose since Nine had been the town hero, it was likely Sportacus hadn't even realised what he was doing. It was an old formality, one that had rapidly died out with the new age, but in that moment Sportacus preformed it out of instinct. Perhaps the motion served as a sort of comfort to the hero, relying in old customs to help him through an uneasy time. It was almost an action of service – a hero was nothing if not a servant to the people after all.

Then Sportacus turned and left, not a single jump in his step, and Milford found himself looking at the still full cup of black tea left on his desk.

It was for the best. That was what they would tell themselves until it was all over. It was for the best.


	8. Chapter 8

Someone was knocking on the secret door to the lair.

Robbie knew this because he'd gone from napping peacefully with Ella curled up against his side, to vaulting a good three feet into the air in a sudden burst of alarm as the pounding at the door shocked him into the waking world. Ella, being as small as she still was, went flying a few more meters and even in his blind panic, Robbie had just enough sense to place himself between the child and the ground.

She may have been small but catching a falling child headfirst was doing his already sore body no favours. The wind got knocked out of him as both Robbie and Ella went tumbling to the ground. But despite his wheezing, it seemed they'd avoided any serious injuries with Ella held protectively to his chest.

The echo of the knocking at the hatch continued without pause and Robbie snarled viciously in the direction the uninvited interruption.

It seemed that Ella was not a light sleeper and even as Robbie's heart worked its way back out of his throat, she was still dazedly rubbing sleep from her eyes. Curiously she peered up towards the tunnel system leading to the lair's main chamber, she looked like she was about to ask who was there but was beat to the opportunity by Robbie as he shouted up to the surface.

"What do you want?" Unconcerned by the growl in her uncle's voice, Ella settled back down into his arms still not entirely ready to leave sleep. Her father sounded like that plenty, although his way of growling was less vicious than Robbie's. Usually when he growled, the situation was not a dangerous one and so Ella wasn't alarmed. Idly her mind made these haphazard comparisons while Robbie dealt with the guest.

"Robbie? Can I come in?"

He went stock-still as recognition set in. What in blazes was the flippy floppity idiot doing here at ungodly hour of…two in the afternoon?

"No. Go away." Robbie snapped back, looking around for any excuse to keep Sportacus out. "No one is home!" He settled on after a moment of panic and immediately regretted the poor choice of words.

Up above, Sportacus had to roll his eyes at the familiar answer.

Robbie had tried that one before on the kids and it hadn't worked then either. He was a little surprised the periscope hadn't immediately leapt up to scrutinize him but he could hear Robbie scuffling about down there with the hatch pried open. He sounded disorganised which did not strike Sportacus as odd in the slightest.

It was only when he caught a quieter voice mumbling, "But _we're_ home, uncle." That Sportacus remembered exactly why he was here.

"Please Robbie?" He tried again, unwilling to let too much of his concern seep into the words least Robbie rear up in disgust at the emotion. "I really need to talk with you? It's important."

Silence was the only answer he got at first. He could practically hear the wheels in Robbie's head turning from all the way up here. Still he was patient, didn't say anymore or make any move to enter Robbie's home. Partly out of common courtesy and partly because he could already feel something akin to guilt eating at him. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about, maybe Ella was only visiting for a few days and her parents would be there to get her soon.

Sportacus dearly hoped that was the case.

"Are you here to ask for a favour?" Robbie's voice came through the hollow vent, carrying with it an implication that was momentarily lost on Sportacus. When it finally did sink in his went very still, not so much concerned, as he was simply surprised. It was a testament to how high an opinion Sportacus actually held for Robbie that he wasn't even mildly disturbed by the words.

"Not quite." He answered carefully, a little surprised by Robbie's choice of words. Perhaps he hadn't meant them the way Sportacus had interpreted them, but if he had then Sportacus had to wonder…

"Don't waste my time." Robbie snapped, breaking Sportacus from his musings. "You can talk through the hatch, you don't need to come down here."

"Robbie…" He was exasperated. This conversation was going nowhere fast and Sportacus knew that if he continued to push he'd likely get a real retaliation from Robbie and they didn't have time to play that particular game today. "It's about Ella?" He tried; cringing, as he knew the child was down there and perfectly able to hear him.

There was that silence again. Sharper, more oppressive in the way it pressed in around Sportacus. Still he waited. The silence stretched and Sportacus couldn't even say that he was listening to those wheels turning; it was as though they'd grinded to a halt. Nothing moved and no one spoke.

He was just beginning to wonder if he'd crossed some kind of line when suddenly the stillness was broken. The sounds of shuffling coming from down the shoot were a little more urgent this time, more focused unlike the unorganised shuffling he'd heard earlier. This encouraged Sportacus, the reaction at least meant that in some way or another Robbie could be prompted to act when his niece was involved.

"Make it snappy." Despite the disgruntle tone Sportacus knew permission when it was given and so he didn't hesitate any longer in entering the hatch.

The ensuing tumble down the vent was just as bumpy and potentially hazardous as Sportacus remembered. It was also perhaps one of Robbie's most poorly thought out designs. But despite the rough fall and loss of all control, Sportacus came flying out into Robbie's lair completely unscathed.

He knew the moment he'd entered the man's home not by the sudden burst of light as he came out of the tunnel, or the feeling of ownership washing over him, but by the orange fur he opened his eyes to.

This chair was still atrocious as always, but at least it made for a soft landing pad.

Crawling his way off of the orange beast that passed for furniture, Sportacus glanced around to take stock of the place. It was…well for lack of a better term – cluttered. More so than he remembered. Sportacus knew Robbie to hoard things and the lair had always been bursting with different oddities. Robbie had a habit of pulling things out of thin air, a trick that Sportacus had carefully avoided prying into. But even knowing how much he could pack into a seemingly small space, the lair was overflowing with things. Which could only mean that there was far more than what he could actually see.

The air was frigid down this far underground and while it pricked at Sportacus's skin, looking for an opportunity to seep into his body and chill him to the bone, it found no such opening despite his minimal amount of clothes.

The cold wasn't the only sensation washing over Sportacus's skin, a now familiar pressure coiled itself around his limbs, not quite squeezing but the potential was there in the way it pressed into his skin. That same sense of ownership was stronger now that he'd fully submerged himself in Robbie's home and now usually Sportacus would brush it off, this form of claim had never been intentional or strong and he'd always assumed it was a result of Robbie being naturally unwelcoming as opposed to him placing any real effort into charms or wards.

But it was stronger now and Sportacus found himself curious. In the past this small pressure was little more than something that he acknowledged and moved past without difficulty, but now the lair seemed to be infused with the feeling and Sportacus was suddenly immensely grateful he had asked– and been given – permission to come down.

He didn't believe that Robbie's magic would have hurt him but Sportacus could safely say that it would not have been a pleasant experience.

Even with that permission the lair seemed to heave in complaint. Rejecting his presence there as vehemently as it would a real intruder with ill intent. Sportacus, still curious, found himself looking at the steely walls of the lair with a renewed uncertainty. It did not like his being here which did reflect Robbie's feelings on the matter, although it felt far more vicious in its disapproval than Robbie's mild irritation.

"Ahem?" Sportacus startled, almost forgetting what he came for as he tried to make sense of the new magic. Robbie stood, hunched over and scowling in his direction while his foot tapped away a rapid four beat rhythm. "I said make it snappy." He reminded the somewhat lost looking elf in his armchair.

Behind Robbie's legs, Ella was peering over at Sportacus. The young girl looked much happier than her uncle to have a visitor, she even offered up a little wave.

"Right, sorry." Sportacus quickly moved back into action, about to flip out of the chair till he noticed the way Robbie's eyes narrowed a fraction. As if daring him to start flipping while in his home.

Thinking better of it Sportacus settled for simply leaping out of the chair and back onto the ground. "Robbie, I-" Sportacus's foot landed on something that was certainly not the cold hard floor of Robbie's lair.

Jerking back in alarm, Sportacus's feet nearly came out from under him, unable to process what he was feeling for the fleeting moment between taking the step and stumbling away. The surprise and unexpected burning sensation that shot up his leg did cause Sportacus to flip back despite his earlier attempts to appease Robbie by refraining from doing just that.

Robbie was saying something, probably exclaiming that there was a strict no flipping rule in his lair or questioning what deity hated him enough for this to be his life, Sportacus didn't hear a word of it. He was too focused on the lingering ache stretching its way up his leg. The burning sensation crawled its way under his boots and assaulted his skin, trying to drag itself further up his leg and latch onto his heart. He knew this feeling.

That was _definitely_ magic.

Sportacus was not the most well versed on magic and charms. He put far greater stock into the physical attributes of creatures, but he was also not completely naïve to it. Especially when he'd literally just stepped foot into a pool of it.

"What is that?" He heard himself ask, voice faraway to his own ears.

"That's my box!" A happy child's voice chimed back gleefully. "It's pretty isn't it? Papa made it for me."

That answer only vaguely registered in Sportacus's head, as he couldn't seem to shift his attention far from the uncomfortable sting of a ward being crossed. That was definitely a ward he'd almost broken, albeit unintentionally. The burn continued until abruptly stopping its climb towards his chest at the sound of Robbie's voice.

Sportacus didn't' realise he was even being spoken to until Robbie was right in front of him, snapping his fingers in the dazed elf's face and repeating his name. He'd tried Sportaflop and Sportaloon – neither of which had worked – so he'd resorted to actually saying Sportacus's _name_. Heaven forbid. Only then did the blue idiot seem to hear him.

The searing heat retreated abruptly, leaving an eerie chill in its wake until it entirely faded. Sportacus was left confused and dazed for a few more seconds before a voice that sounded suspiciously like his afi informing him about wards being crafted for specific species and then a step further to specific people. Mistaken identity was not beyond magic.

"Are you in there, Sportacus?" Robbie was asking, his voice only jus beginning to register in the elf's mind.

"Yes, yes I…" He swallowed, not having expected to be greeted by such hostile magic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to step on your…box?" He tried glancing back at Ella and tensing instinctively when he saw the girl fiddling with the blankets in the box. It was an unfounded panic that drove him to almost tell the girl to keep away from the thing, afraid it would burn her as well, but of course Ella didn't even know there was a ward on that box to begin with.

"It's okay mister hero." Ella replied brightly and went back to fixing up the small mess Sportacus had made. Making a nest for a teddy bear that was the most obnoxious shade of purple Sportacus had ever seen.

"Not that this isn't positively lovely," Robbie broke into Sportacus's train of thought with a sneer; sounding like he clearly thought this was absolutely dreadful. ", but what do you want?"

Sportacus righted himself quickly after that. Shaking his head and trying to get his thoughts back in order. No matter how startled he might have been, he still had a purpose for the visit and it took precedence over any other questions he might have had. He could think about magic and wards at another time.

Glancing uncertainly at Ella, Sportacus frowned. The expression startling Robbie who didn't think Sportacus had it in him to look so uneasy or miserable over anything. Then he was looking at Robbie again with a horrible mix of concern and sympathy. "Perhaps we should talk somewhere else?" He suggested quietly and it took Robbie a moment to realise he meant somewhere Ella wouldn't hear.

Bristling angrily Robbie locked his arms over his chest and stared down at Sportacus. Despite his height he couldn't seem to make it feel like he was looming over the smaller man. The fool was simply too oblivious and self-assured for that kind of power play to have any effect. Still Robbie tried it.

"Here is fine." He replied stiffly, immediately shutting down Sportacus's meek attempt as subtly.

Reluctantly Sportacus began to explain himself, still wishing they were further away from Ella for this. The young girl didn't seem to be paying them much attention; instead Ella was more focused on making the bear a nice home to sleep in. Ella was very particular about this, keeping the bear safe and happy seemed extremely important to her.

It was only once her fingers had gradually eased away from the soft fur of the toy that Ella wondered precisely _why_ she cared so much. Then immediately knew the answer, looking at the teddy, its flat bulbous eyes staring back at her in a way that she thought was a touch mischievous, Ella was swamped by a sense of longing.

The little purple bear, much like her box, had been a gift from her father.

He'd bought specifically for her, infused it with lavender to help her sleep so she wouldn't follow in his insomniac footsteps. Looking at it made her wonder about her father, she knew better than to pester her uncle about it. Her father had told her not to make a fuss, not to be too obtuse or exasperating – although the words was often lost on her, the implication was not.

She wanted to be a good child, wanted to earn herself praise and adoration – so she wouldn't keep annoying Robbie with questions about her father and when he'd finally be back with them both. She wouldn't complain or go out of her way to get answers. He could wait for him.

Still, Ella missed her papa horribly. She hadn't been apart for him for this long since…well for as far as she could remember he'd always been close by. Now suddenly he wasn't there at all and Ella only had the box and bear as a direct link to him. So she was extremely careful and tender with both.

Glancing up Ella watched her uncle talk with the hero. She smiled at the sight, thinking that it was a very familiar one. Although Sportacus didn't look nearly as angry and Robbie not nearly as impish as the usual rendition of this view. Perhaps they were simply better friends than her papa and the mustard monkey were.

Although the longer she watched them, the more curious Ella became.

Their voices, which had minutes ago been loud enough to hear, were now hushed. Peering at them Ella could just make out the beginnings of a frown on the hero's face. His strange little whiskers seeming to twitch down. Robbie's spine was ridged in a way she hadn't seen before, as though he'd locked up every muscle in his body. Then her uncle glanced in her direction and Ella's good mood began to fade. He looked…uneasy.

She'd seen a look like that before.

Suddenly the bear had no place in the box and was instead cradled tight to her chest. Little fingers burying deep into the fur, trying to focus on the smell of lavender instead of looking at that passing expression of disquiet on her uncle's face.

And still their quiet conversation continued.

"My brother is a egocentric pest." Robbie uttered sharply to Sportacus. Voice kept to a quiet hiss so they words wouldn't reach Ella. "Of course he's not coming back!"

"The mayor is looking into finding a place for her." Sportacus told him, voice matching his in volume although it was infinitely gentler. "Where she'll be taken care of. Robbie I didn't come here to force you into anything, but Gabriella really should-"

Robbie reared back, a look of disgust slipping onto his face. "What?" He asked shrilly, daring Sportacus to put words in his mouth. "You think I care? Pft! Not likely. Robbie Rotten doesn't look after _children_ – you'll be doing me a favour!" Robbie was getting heated now, one finger jammed skyward as he snarled at the passive elf. "You think I want to spend my time looking after brats when I could be sleeping or getting some peace and quiet? Of course I don't want h-!"

"Uncle?" Robbie's words came to a grinding halt as Ella's little voice reached him. Instantaneously stealing the wind from his sails.

The angry rant he'd been preparing in his mind for the past two minutes suddenly fell apart and he could utter a single word of it. Instead he was staring down at his niece as she tugged gently on his pants leg in a way that had become familiar to him.

Again he was taken aback by her eyes, there were moments like these where they looked at him that Robbie could have sworn they glowed. Ella looked scared and part of Robbie shrivelled up and recoiled from the sight.

"What's going on?" She asked in a voice that must have been crafted purely to pull on heartstrings it was so desperate for reassurance.

Sportacus, seeing that Robbie had been turned to statue by the girl's question, stepped forward. Adopting a familiar stance, kneeling before the child, Sportacus tried to warm his face into a smile that would comfort the girl. He could not, _would not_ , lie to her but the words did not need to be harsh. "Robbie and I were just talking about where you're going to live." He supplied gently, allowing time for the meaning to sink in.

When it did Ella's little fist tightened on Robbie's pants while her other arm wound more tightly around the teddy she kept clutched to her chest. "I can stay here." She mumbled into the bears fur. "Until papa comes to get me."

It was not easy to bite back the grimace and keep a smile in its place, but Sportacus managed to do just that. For the sake of the little girl in front of him. "That…" He paused, with a careful glance up at Robbie who hadn't so much as taken a breath since Ella came over. "…that might be a while, Ella. If you're going to be staying for some time, we need to get you a proper place to stay."

He could see Ella was withdrawing, shaking her head a little bit. He had to try and word this better, had to be careful not to upset the child. "The kids in town will love to meet you." Sportacus continued, able to put some enthusiasm into his tone, trying to warm Ella to the idea. "There's lots of games to play and you'll even be able to go to school with the others. You'll have plenty of friends and good food." Perhaps that final promise was made to keep Sportacus's peace of mind. He had not been wrong in thinking Robbie had given her nothing but cake judging by the state of the lair.

Still Ella looked tentative, glancing up at her uncle as if willing him to say something against what Sportacus was offering.

Except Robbie had already agreed on her behalf.

Albeit not nearly as happily as he seemed to claim he'd be with Ella gone. Robbie sniffed, tightening his arms across his chest. "Sportakook is right. Loath as I am to say it." He said stiffly. "The lair is no place for a child. No, absolutely not. A villain cannot babysit. Better you go off with this fool and pester him instead."

Ella didn't say anything, instead she went very quiet and very still for a few seconds before gradually releasing her uncle's clothes. The now free hand returning to the bear she hugged tighter still. Sportacus didn't know what to make of the silence, it wasn't tears or protests but it did not feel much better.

So he did all he could think to do, and offered Ella his hand. "Come on." He encouraged gently, still able to manage a small smile for her. "We'll go and meet everyone, that'll be fun, right?"

Reluctantly Ella nodded, the half-hearted motion not doing much to encourage Sportacus. Then slowly she reached out and placed her little hand into his own and some of Sportacus's tension melted away.

Clasping her hand in both of his Sportacus eased back up to his feet, leading Ella a few steps away from her uncle who hadn't budged an inch during the exchange. "We can come back and visit." He tried but Ella didn't seem much happier even when told that. She did however, risk a small glance back at her uncle who tensed under her gaze.

She was waiting for approval.

"Yeah, whatever." Robbie managed with a small huff. "Just don't go interrupting my naps!"

Ella still didn't speak, instead giving another small nod before looking back at Sportacus. This time keeping the smile up was a little more difficult when he saw how upset the child was. "Come on." He said again, words hushed, as he didn't even attempt to sound jovial. For now he just spoke in a comforting tone, the best he could manage given the circumstances. "How does a piggyback ride sound?"

There was a tiny smile fighting to get out on Ella's face, but it was struggling under the very real threat of tears. Still she managed a shy little node and Sportacus helped the girl crawl up onto his back. She weighed next to nothing for the elf, considering how easily he carried full-grown adults.

Robbie had turned his back to them, arms still winded firmly across his chest as he waited for the pair to leave. Sportacus kept his eyes on the man as Ella made herself comfortable and wondered just how much of his ravings had been true. The feel of the lair had shifted slightly, less unwelcoming now that Ella was holding onto him but far more frantic than it had been when he arrived.

Sportacus waited till she was secure on his back, nuzzled into his shoulder before turning for the exit. He planned to leave quickly, making a clean break of sorts before making an effort to help cheer up the child with the promise of new friends and games to place.

Except he hesitated.

"Make sure you do visit, okay?" Sportacus reminded Robbie softly.

"Are you still here?" Was Robbie's sharp response and Sportacus shook his head a little bit before leaping up the ladder out of the lair. He didn't look back to see what Robbie's expression was and he hoped that Ella would do the same.

Neither of them saw as Robbie stood like a statue till the pair of them were out of sight and then unceremoniously dropped into his comfort lounge. Robbie stayed where he'd fallen, sprawled inelegantly across the arm of the chair with one leg all but hanging off of it. It was not comfortable but still Robbie didn't move, he barely trusted himself to move.

Around him the lair seemed to chill abruptly. It had never been the warmest place but he felt a distinct drop in temperature with the elf and child out of his hair. And although the feel of the air had become somewhat stale and, dare he say it, judgemental – Robbie still did nothing besides lay across his favourite seat. The same seat he'd been fighting to claim back since Gabriella's initial arrival. Well it was his now, no need to fight for it or concern himself with the possibility of Ella crawling into his lap during the night.

Robbie ought to have been relieved.

And so he was, that was what he told himself as the seconds trickled on by. This was what he had wanted after all - a way to get the girl out of his hair and he had it. Robbie didn't even need to worry about her safety with Sportakook on the job. He stayed like that, motionless, before noticing the little box still left beside his chair. Robbie growled under his breath and gave the thing a little kick it did not deserve.

Somehow, despite everything. The silence for months on end, abandoning him in a town that hadn't been the least bit safe at the time. Even suddenly dropping a child on him with little more than a passive aggressive note for explanation…Robbie had never hated Glanni more than he did in that exact moment.


	9. Chapter 9

The child on his back hadn't said a word the whole way up the ladder to the lair's exit. Sportacus could feel her occasionally shifting to get a better position and after a while he realised that she was actually trying to make sure the _teddy bear_ was comfortable. He couldn't help having a small chuckle of disbelief under his breath.

Ella seemed rather different to her uncle and, from what little he knew of her father, she wasn't much like him either. He vaguely remembered seeing a child much like her once in the past, but that girl had been considerably older and puppet like. One of Robbie's schemes gone too far if he remembered correctly. But the child he carried back to town now wasn't in any way rotten or wicked. From what he could see she behaved herself very well, sometimes a little too well.

He'd been glad that there'd been no crying or protesting when she had to leave Robbie's lair but…well he'd expected there to be _some_ retaliation.

Instead she was silent and did as she was told without so much as a sniffle or mumbled complaint. Sportacus didn't want to loo a gift horse in the mouth but he still wondered if she was really alright. Children couldn't be expected to behave perfectly all the time, it was ridiculous to think so. But still Ella remained quiet and courteous. Neither words of which could be used to describe Robbie.

It wasn't until they met with the open sky, the sun assaulting their eyes that had been adjusting to the darkness of the underground lair that Ella finally spoke. It took her a while longer after exiting the hatch to speak up.

They'd just passed the billboard designed to hide the entrance – and doing a pretty poor job of it – when Ella's little voice surprised Sportacus. More so what she asked than the fact she'd spoken at all.

"What's your real name?" She asked curiously.

"My name?" He repeated with a laugh. "I told you yesterday, don't you remember?"

Ella's little face screwed up in thought before she began to list the names she knew. "Sportaloon, Sportakook, Sportacus, Sportaloser, Blue Kangeroo, Flippity floppity—"

"Alright, alright." Sportacus laughed whole-heartedly and Ella managed a small giggle of her own when his back shuddered with the sound. "I get it, Robbie has a rather interesting list of names. But I promise, I'm just Sportacus."

He couldn't tell if she'd committed this to memory or not and so Sportacus asked her a question instead.

"What's a mustard monkey?"

At this little Ella grinned, he could feel the mirthful expression as she hugged into his back and for a moment Sportacus could see Robbie in her, if only a little bit. "Papa said it was the nicest thing he could call him." Ella explained with a scandalous little snicker. "Said the other names for him were too adult to use in front of me." Then after a brief pause Ella added. "But I still caught him using them sometimes."

Sportacus suddenly felt a massive wave of relief knowing that her father was no longer caring for her. Robbie had not spoken highly of his brother in their brief discussion on the matter and while Ella seemed extremely fond of him – Sportacus thought that there were plenty of better guardians for a young girl to have.

"And who exactly was your father talking about so…colourfully?" He really didn't have any other word to describe profanity without it sounding rude in of itself. So colourful was the word to go with.

"Hm." Ella hummed quietly in thought. "He was a very scary man sometimes, but he and papa played lots of games and he was very friendly to me! I don't think papa ever called him by name. Unless he really was a mustard monkey…he called him cow sometimes too. Papa never played very nice."

He tried not to roll his eyes or sigh. Robbie might have been lazy and generally pretty unfriendly but all of his rude nicknames were at least child friendly. His brother did not seem to have the same graces.

"Where are you from, Ella?" He asked, just to try and keep the girl talking – to try and keep her mind from wandering to sadder territory. "Far from here?"

"Oh! I live in a big city." She explained, excitement able to creep into her voice. "It's gigantic and fancy and everyone is always moving around, they're all so bu-"

"Busy." Sportacus realised abruptly and could have kicked himself for not making the connection sooner. "You're from Busy City."

To which Ella nodded happily with a small chirped "Yup!" Sportacus, had he not been carrying the girl would have started sprinting or at least tried to do a flip to let out from frustration. He didn't' fancy his chances of pulling either off without somehow making Ella sick.

Busy City, it had been coming up an awful lot frequently and Sportacus could not for the life of him figure out why it had suddenly become so prominent. He hadn't thought of it for the better half of a decade and he'd been doing quite well with that until just earlier that week.

Perhaps it was time creeping in, that realisation that he'd been avoiding the topic for far too long finally building such weight that even he couldn't ignore it. It wasn't as though he was running from anything…he just didn't like thinking about it very much.

It may have been high time he just swallowed his pride and sent a letter of his own. Although Sportacus couldn't even begin to imagine how that would go. Somehow a simply 'Hello, it's been a long time' didn't seem sufficient.

While he was still mulling this over, Ella had shifted on his back again. She was peering out over his shoulder at the town as they came into it. The grassy fields held her attention for quite sometime but Sportacus also noticed her eyeing the tree house as they passed it. It was encouraging to see that she looked at the town with such awe, it gave him hope she'd settle in nicely.

"This place is nice." Ella told him gently, words softening with wonder. "You're nice too. Is everything here nice?"

He didn't bother hiding the smile that fought to get out at those words and instead offered up a simple nod. "Everyone here is very nice. It is a good place to live." He knew exactly what she had to compare it to and felt he wasn't doing Lazytown justice in contrast.

Busy City was not the nicest place in the world, and he was being generous with that. Cities frequently fell victim to people's apathy and rush, but Busy City had a particularly bad run of criminal activity and a generally unfriendly atmosphere.

Having only been there twice Sportacus could safety say he'd rather never go back and he knew that Ella would have a better childhood in Lazytown than she would that dreadful place.

It would take time but he hoped she'd be happy here once she had some time to make friends. He also hoped that Robbie would really come to see her. Perhaps she'd be a little surprised when she saw the tricks he played on town, but judging by the state he'd found the pair in while on his airship the day before – she already knew perfectly well. She might even find herself entertained by her uncle's antics like the other kids often were.

"The mayor is also very nice man." Sportacus told Ella, putting as much optimism in his voice as he could. "He has a niece that's just a little bit older than you, she likes dancing. Do you like to dance, Ella?"

"Ballet." Ella murmured without so much as a second passing between the question was asked and an answer being given. "Papa dances beautifully. Robbie sorta dances too, when he moves around a lot."

Well Sportacus could find no fault in that.

As they entered town Ella seemed to be more enthralled by the sights. Taking time to look at each house they passed. Sportacus was somewhat relieved that the kids would still be in class.

It might have been a little too much for Ella to have them all meet her at once. She'd need some time to adjust and hopefully cheer up before being bombarded by the children's well intentions and curious questions.

They were only just entering three in the afternoon and Sportacus wasn't expecting to see any of the kids until another half an hour had passed.

As they neared the mayor's house, Sportacus once again knelt to the ground and helped Ella ease her way down off his shoulders. The girl took her time stretching out her legs and regaining her balance while Sportacus spent a few moments stretching out his arms and loosening his muscles again. He knew better than to vault off without at least doing some basic stretches.

"Um, Sportacus?" Ella mumbled, the nervousness in her voice catching his full attention. Ella stood, bear held tight to her chest with her eyes downcast. "Can I…can I stay out here while you talk to the nice mayor?" She asked him quietly. "I…I don't like…people are scary."

Sportacus's heart nearly leapt straight out of his chest, wanting immediately to reassure her that everything was fine.

Sometimes meeting new people was frightening but everyone here was kind and she had nothing to worry about. A thousand different reassurances flew through his head, but Sportacus stopped and pushed them all back down. Ella was still out of her comfort zone, still in a new unfamiliar territory and was putting her trust in him to introduce her to it. So they did this slowly, as much as it went again his natural urge to just dive straight in, they would do this at her pace. He wasn't going to ruin the trust she'd put him.

"Alright." He agreed gently. "But don't go anywhere, okay Ella? Just stay right here and I'll go in and talk to the mayor, then we'll get you settled in." He explained while pulling his arm across his chest. She hadn't weighed much of anything but Sportacus was nothing if not attentive when it came to healthy exercise. "You'll have to say hello to the mayor eventually, but I'll give you some time to prepare. No need to rush."

Relief flashed across Ella's face before she offered up a grateful smile and set herself purposefully down on the front step to the mayor's house. She looked up at Sportacus with a stern nod that said 'I'll sit right here till you come back'. Sportacus found himself smiling in response, she was a good kid.

"I won't be long." He promised her before letting himself into the mayor's house. He would have knocked as he planned to earlier that day but he knew Milford was expecting him and he didn't want to run the risk of having the mayor answer the door when Ella wasn't ready to talk to strangers just yet.

The blue hero had just stepped through the nice mayor's front doors when Ella felt a wave of uncertainty hit her. The hero was kind and she felt safe when he was around but he'd spoken about other children and people, Ella didn't know if she had it in her – or was indeed even allowed – to trust that many people.

Her papa had been very particular about who she spoke to, if anyone at all. He'd gotten irritated with her habit of going off the talk to strangers in the past, said it wasn't safe until the lesson was all but drilled into her head.

Now Ella wasn't sure what was supposed to come after 'hello', what did people say to one another? Did they ask about the weather or did they smile while robbing them blind immediately after meeting? Perhaps that last one was unique to her father.

Ella tried her hardest to think of what to say to this mayor person. Sportacus promised everyone here was nice, so maybe she should say something nice? Compliment him for something? He was the mayor, so maybe she could tell him he had a nice town? The town _was_ nice after all.

For all her nervousness and homesickness – Ella could at least enjoy the open air and warm breeze. The town was wonderful; she couldn't understand why her father had moved into the city when this place existed. He had lived here before she was born, why would anyone want to leave?

The clock had just rolled over to twenty past three while Ella mulled this all over. Sportacus couldn't have known that on this particular day, Stephanie Meanswell had left the school building early.

Too eager with her new pen pal to be held back for the extra few minutes of class. Stephanie was practically buried in her response letter, jittery with excited energy as she approached her home, or what had been her home for the past two years. She hadn't focused on anything in class that day, all of it going in one ear and out the other as she pondered on what to say back to her new friend.

They'd been friendly and it was exciting to think it was someone who had lived in Lazytown once upon a time. Granted the letter was a touch more adult than what she'd been expecting and she hadn't actually been given the full name of her friend, but that only drove Stephanie to try and sound mature in her response. She'd written it out at least three times before finally being satisfied with the fourth version. Only after she'd pencilled it up, marked down her name and return address and sealed it back up, could Stephanie seem to think of anything else. It just so happened her absolute first thought was about posting it immediately.

She almost didn't see the little purple girl sitting in the doorway of her house.

Didn't notice her until she'd stepped into the front yard, swinging the gate open and scaring the quiet girl nearly out of her skin. Both girls startled at the sight of one another and for a second Stephanie almost thought she was looking at the windup doll Robbie had once brought to the surface. But her skin was too real, the doll like features just soft enough to pass for a real child.

And she was staring at Stephanie like she'd just stepped out into the oncoming headlights. Neither girl spoke, it didn't seem that either of them were breathing for those first few seconds that they spent staring at one another.

Then a name came to Stephanie.

"Ella…?" She tried uncertainly, looking for any recognition on the other child's face.

When she caught the slight shift, the acknowledgment of her name in the way her eyes widened, Stephanie's face broke out into a beaming smile. Then she, as if they were old friends, enveloped the younger girl in an enthusiastic hug. Ella squeaked in alarm but didn't try to wiggle away from the sudden embrace.

Ecstatic to see the girl she'd been told about early that morning, Stephanie briefly squeezed her tight before holding her at arms length, undeterred by Ella's stunned silence. "It's so good that you're here!" She began excitedly. "Sportacus said he was going to make sure you were alright, I didn't doubt him for a second!"

As the stranger began to happily gush about her being there, Ella was still reeling. She had no words, now even a simple hello seemed beyond her. Because the girl standing in front of her was _dazzling_.

At first when Stephanie had walked through the front gate, Ella had frozen. The moment she saw the girl, decked out from head to toe in pink, she hadn't remembered her own name. It was something like bewilderment that wedged itself into her throat and refused to allow words to surface. This girl was so _bright_. Like nothing Ella had ever seen.

The city was full of grim faces and equally grim clothes. This little town had already showed her more colour in a week than two years in the city. But her papa had been dazzling, his clothes often bright and flashy and always enough to shine in her eyes. Glanni and those few he surrounded himself with had been her sole source of colour in the city. He'd liked pink as well and perhaps that was why the girl in front of her now seemed to glow.

But her papa hadn't had that _smile_.

All of his smiles made Ella giggle; they made her happy and frequently made her feel safe. But not a single one had looked like this one. So wholly devoid of any arrogance or wickedness. The smile this stranger was wearing sucked the thoughts right out of Ella's head.

There was no set of words, no smile or expression she could muster up that would be enough. There was nothing she could say that would match this girl's brightness; she'd pale in comparison. She'd fall flat, she'd be pathetic, she'd look pitiful – without even realising it Ella now understood exactly what it felt like for a villain's child to stand next to a hero's girl.

She felt rotten.

Seeming to finally take notice of how silent the new girl was, Stephanie backed off a touch. "Oh sorry." She exclaimed with a clumsy smile. As if to show how thoughtless she'd been, Stephanie tapped her head with a roll of her eyes. "Silly me, I totally forgot, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Stephanie." She introduced herself with that same stunning smile.

It was a relief she didn't need Ella to introduce herself because she was still working on remembering her own name. "Sportacus told me all about you this morning." A slight exaggeration. "Are you okay? It must have been dreadful, nothing but cake I bet. You don't feel sick do you? Sportscandy will fix it, I promise."

"I…what?" Ella managed, shaking her head as if she could somehow make sense of what she was hearing. "…sorry?"

"Living with Robbie Rotten!" Stepanie exclaimed and it felt like a bucket of icy water had been tipped over Ella.

Suddenly everything came into sharp focus. The tone, the way her pretty face twisted as she spoke her uncle's name – all of it effectively washed away the trance she'd been under. In place of the rush of excitement and nervousness, Ella felt a cold weight settling into her stomach.

"What are you saying?" She asked slowly, a stormy expression falling over her usually soft features.

"It must have been terrible." Stephanie repeated, not at all aware of the shift in mood from the girl she hoped to befriend. "But don't worry. Sportacus is a great hero; he'll sort out that trouble maker Robbie. He's just absolutely rotten; you must have been so bored down there. Don't worry you'll have a much nicer place to stay from now on. We'll introduce you to everyone and maybe there'll be a party and-"

"You take that back."

Stephanie stopped, finally noticing the change in expression. The scowl that twisted up Ella's face was so vicious that Stephanie took a few surprised steps away. Had she done something wrong?

Ella was furious. She was fuming, vehement, absolutely livid, she was more angry than she had the words to describe. Which was quite the achievement considering Glanni had taught her so many with his frequent rants over irritating heroes.

Was this what people thought of her uncle? Was that what people thought of her family?

All at once her memories came back. Thoughts of her uncle and his unusual behaviour that she'd always thought to be entertaining and at times even kind. Memories of her father, telling her all about the dangers of the world along side the wonders of it. The teddy she loved so much that still smelt of lavender in her hands. The cakes Robbie had tried to conjure up for her even though she saw him cringe at the mere notion of carrot cake.

Then moments like this came into her head as well.

Her father explaining to her why people didn't like them. Why people were not worth talking to or trusting. Why people hurt so much. Rotten they'd called him, and rightfully so Glanni had claimed. A criminal without remorse he'd said. But Ella couldn't agree. Her father could be amazing. He was cunning and crafty and resourceful, but he was never cruel. And Robbie was… _Robbie was_ ….

Suddenly it was all too much and Ella exploded.

" _You're rotten_!" She screamed at the pretty girl, the girl who she'd only just met. The one that sparkled like the sun when she smiled and made Ella feel like she was dirt. "I don't want to live in your noisy town and play your exhausting games! I don't want to eat sportscandy or make friends! Who need friends like _you_ anyway?" Ella shrieked, unaware of the door behind the pair of them swinging open.

She didn't know Sportacus and the mayor were there as she shoved Stephanie. Surprised by the outburst Stephanie fell back with a shout of alarm that quickly turned to one of pain as she landed awkwardly on her hand and for a moment Ella felt regret twist up her insides. Ella almost hadn't realised what she was doing until after Stephanie had hit the ground. She looked down at the older girl and noticed she was holding her wrist to her chest now. Cradling it tightly with her other hand and Ella saw a bit of red beginning to leak between Stephanie's fingers.

"I…I didn't mean to…"

Scared and ashamed, Ella backed away from Stephanie only to finally take notice of the two adults standing in the doorway staring at the scene. Neither had properly comprehended what they were seeing and their expressions were matching looks of shock, but it was the wail of a siren that cut through Ella's mind like a knife.

The number on the hero's chest had lit up and it was _screaming_.

The sound was so familiar that Ella's entire body seemed to shut down for a few seconds. She knew that sound, knew it meant someone was in trouble and her mind urgently told her that if she didn't move now the person in trouble would be her. Criminals hurt people, heroes dealt with criminals – she'd pushed Stephanie.

 _She'd hurt Stephanie._

Terrified Ella tore out of the mayor's front yard, deaf to the calls of the adults behind her. She knew she'd be chased. That's what heroes did after all and even now as panic seized her by the throat, Ella remembered her father's rules and lessons. One of which he'd always firmly reminded her of – if an hero chased you, you _ran_.

But she was no great runner and Ella's little feet wouldn't get her far when compared to the long strides of a hero. So she resorted to her own version of that lesson.

She had to hide.

That was fine. Ella was the best hider of her generation her father had said. Even her papa couldn't find her once she'd hidden herself.

Her hands were trembling and her heart flailing wildly against her ribs, but still Ella remembered what she had to do. Her papa had taught her hiding above all else, he'd also been rather insistent she learn it for when she was on the move. If an elf was chasing you and there was no time to lose them in a back alleyway – which there seemed to be a distinct lack of in Lazytown – then a concealment charm was in order.

Even all her trust in Sportacus was rendered null in those few frantic seconds between escaping the yard and fleeing in whatever direction her feet carried her. Sportacus was a hero and she'd been bad. Ella didn't need to remember the expression on her father's face when returning home from a job gone wrong to know that bruises would be the least of her problems if caught.

So she ran. She ran and she hid – never once answering Sportacus's panicked calls for her to come back.

She couldn't trust that.

…  
…

Barely an hour had passed and Robbie hadn't even managed to uncoil himself from the lounge.

He kept waiting for the metaphorical second shoe to drop. He kept waiting for that four pattern tap to suddenly sound at his door, he even had the complaint he'd answered with memorised down to the extremely loud sigh.

Robbie knew it was probably rather telling that he'd practically scripted how that interaction would go. Ella would appear, much to his irritation, he'd make a few haphazard complaints and demands to know how she got back in and she'd just give him that overly smug look of hers and that would be that. They'd go back to napping and practicing how to be a proper sidekick.

Except he hadn't heard so much as a single tap.

A full hour. Ecluding the first attempt he'd made to mail her back to Glanni, it have never taken Ella that long to reappear. Perhaps she really was gone now, Sportacus did not tend to do things in halves after all.

Growling at himself, Robbie finally kicked out of his seat in a violent flurry of limbs. He was wasting time just waiting for something to happen. If Ella was properly gone then he could go back his normal routine _finally_ , no need to spend so much time waiting on her to come crashing back into his life.

He was glad for it. This was what he'd been trying to get for a solid week now – some peace and quiet without a child pestering him all the time.

Huffing Robbie stalked over to his cake maker, thinking he could use a snack to get his brain going again. Except when he pulled the leaver and the cake that was spate out was not the usual favourite it normally gave him, but vanilla instead, Robbie deflated. He stared miserably at the white cake, wondering if this one had been Ella's favourite or if she would have demanded another flavour the next day.

Come to think of it, he hadn't asked her what her favourite was. That bothered him for some reason.

Realising what he was doing, Robbie jerked backwards as though he could physically remove himself from his moping. Tossing the cake aside with a sneer of disgust, Robbie instead turned his attention to his chest of tools.

Maybe what he needed was a new project, a new machine to test out on Sportacus. What should he make then? Robbie's mind began to light up with wicked little ideas as he knelt in front of the chest and began to dig around. Only what he found instead of a wrench or a screwdriver was the blasted bow Ella had arrived with.

Now this was just getting ridiculous.

"I know what you're doing!" He called to no one in particular. Robbie knew the lair was not technically a sentient creature but there were moments like these where he could have sworn it was working against him. Mocking him even. Pushing him in certain directions or judging him with the way the air pressed in on him alone.

For this particular moment, judgement was definitely the right word.

"I don't miss some snot nosed brat. Certainly not." He crowed, tossing the bow over his shoulder. Robbie slammed the chest shut, no longer trusting it, and began to stalk the length of the lair – ranting all the while.

"I don't need a child cluttering up my lair, leaving bows and nonsense around my work space. Hmpf, ludicrous! I only let her stay here because she wouldn't go away, and because she was noisy if I put her in the tree house, and Glanni said he's liquefy my insides. I mean really, what an obscene threat! I bet he doesn't even have enough magic to liquefy ice now days. And another thing ab-!"

His foot collided with something solid and Robbie yelped out in equal parts pain and surprise. Tripping over the thing, Robbie inelegantly fell flat onto the ground, getting tangled up in his own long limbs. He knew exactly what it was he'd hit before even looking up to confirm the suspicion.

And sure enough, sitting there in a decidedly disapproving way – was Ella's box.

Briefly the thought of kicking it again for good measure crossed Robbie's mind, but he didn't trust it not to retaliate in some way. It had been made by his brother, there was every chance it would somehow shock him if he tried. Instead Robbie scrambled up into a sitting position and scowled down at that box, as if he was seriously trying to challenge and inanimate object.

Still the air around him felt tense and unhappy with him. He knew he'd put too much magic into this lair. At the very least he had not undone enough of the protective wards in the past two years.

"What do you expect?" He asked the open air angrily. "Even if I wanted the kid back here – I _don't_ by the way – she went with Sportaflop!" Robbie had shouted the words and they rung a little too long in the empty cavernous walls. Then gradually they began to sink in, his own thought gradually digging into him.

"She went with Sportacus." He repeated more quietly, no longer having the energy to shout. By his sides his arms sat limp and Robbie stared dejectedly at the box. "The kid was as smart as that blasted brother of mine. Got out while the going was still good." He huffed icily. "I'm not bitter." He added sharply, but even he didn't believe his own lies. "I know why Glanni left, I would have too but…"

But he loved Lazytown.

Robbie felt wretched all over again. He'd spent years trying not to think about Glanni or Busy City, or the past and now here he was going through it all again. He meant what he'd said, Robbie had always understood why Glanni had left Lazytown, he'd been smarter than he had been attached and so he'd left the town behind when things weren't going his way.

But Robbie, having been so much younger at the time, hadn't been able to pry himself away. Sometimes he wondered if it was really by his own choice he stayed, but more frequently he just cursed Glanni for leaving him there on his own regardless.

He was resentful yes, but he also understood. Gabriella was Glanni's girl through and through – she was smart enough to know when to move to a better place and that better place had been away from _him_.

It made sense….

"I don't miss her." He repeated but this time he wasn't even met with resistance from the lair, just silence.


	10. Chapter 10

Robbie was still sitting on the floor when he began to hear the sounds of those surface dwellers getting fired up over something. He could hear each damn step they took, bouncing and running about – making his head ring with the sound. Feeling particularly put off by their high energy on today of all days, Robbie at first tried to ignore them. Dragging an orange pillow over his head in an effort to smother the echoing pound of their feet overhead.

He should have known better than to try, it seemed whatever efforts he made to block them out were easily drowned out and he'd be damned – but it sounded like they were getting _louder_.

The ringing of people rushing about overhead had the beginnings of a headache for Robbie. He couldn't believe this. The sheer discourtesy of these people was stupendous. Hadn't he already had a bad enough day, a bad enough week, without this nonsense?

The pillow abandoned and tossed across the lair floor, Robbie dragged himself up onto the observation platform. The periscope hadn't been getting used as frequently those past few days and almost seemed surprised when it was called down. This time it didn't even try landing atop Robbie's head and instead dutifully fell down, making Robbie somewhat suspicious.

Glancing around warily at the questionably still lair, Robbie gingerly took the periscope into his hands before peering inside. He really ought to have exorcized this place in a sense, obviously he'd never do such a thing, but he didn't know where the underground abode had gotten such an attitude. It certainly wasn't his influence that left it with such a malicious temperament – perhaps it was the result of having once housed both Robbie and Glanni. The lair probably liked the older boy more – that would be just about right.

Now in a decidedly fouler mood, Robbie searched for the source of all the ruckus. He expected to find the kids playing games now that school was out. Part of him was a little hesitant to look. Wondering if he'd see Ella up there joining in their noisy activities.

Robbie wasn't sure how he felt about that prospect.

What if she was having fun? What if she was happy? Then he'd have to drag himself up there and try to foil all their fun and boot Sportacus out of town. Would Ella look at him like the other kids did then? Would she also say his name like a curse and send him slinking back underground. Maybe not today, maybe not the first time – but she would eventually.

Dwelling on that scenario did nothing to brighten Robbie's mood as the periscope popped out at the usual spots around town. It took a little longer than he'd expected, it seemed that the group of towns people he most often spied on were all split up.

He found a few of the kids running, but he couldn't guess what game they were playing. They didn't look like they were having fun as they rushed across the town in different directions. They were looking in odd places, up in trees, behind houses and inside bushes. It looked like they'd lost something.

Without being able to pin down just one of the hurried children, Robbie instead set out looking for anyone that wasn't running. He's almost been sick when the tricky child rushed past the periscope – whirling it and himself around a few times. She didn't even seem to see his spyglass. Not unusual, the kids rarely took notice of it.

"What on earth are they doing up there?" Robbie hissed once he'd managed to stop himself and the periscope from spinning around. He was even able to keep himself from being sick. After a few seconds passed of Robbie just getting his bearings back, he begrudgingly went back to looking for some answers and hopefully a way to make them all quieten down.

What he found was Sportacus and the pink girl. For a moment he was startled by how _still_ Sportacus was.

He was crouching next to Pinky, the girl sitting up on the side of the road outside of her uncle's home. She seemed to have been crying, still wiping some tears out of her eyes while the blue clad hero held her hand. Looking a little closer Robbie could see that the hand was freshly bandaged.

This was shocking to him for a number of reasons. The thought that someone was actually able to get hurt while Sportaloon was on the case just seemed impossible. Since his arrival Robbie didn't think there'd been one serious injury among the children. Maybe a scraped knee once in a while but very rarely.

What had he missed?

The periscope crept up closer so Robbie could hear what was being said. Needless to say what he heard was not what he wanted to hear.

"I'm sorry." Pinky – Stephanie – was saying, still clumsily rubbing her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset her, I just wanted…I'm sorry." She was still clearly coming out of a crying fit and Sportacus – the poor hopeless elf – was struggling to work with emotional problems. But of course he tried because despite being completely unable to eat sugar – he was so sweet that even Robbie cringed.

"Hey, hey…" He spoke, patting Stephanie's hand gently as he tried to sooth her. "You didn't mean to upset Ella. You were trying to make friends, you didn't know." Stephanie sniffled, trying to hold back her tears and doing a fairly poor job of it. "I'm sure she didn't mean what she said either."

"She hates me." Stephanie told Sportacus miserably, looking down at her bandaged hand. It wasn't really that bad an injury – it seemed to her that her uncle and Sportacus had overreacted but she could still feel the slight sting and knew it would still be bleeding. Ella had shoved her and Stephanie wanted to be angry, wanted to right – but…when she thought about Ella's eyes when looking at her after the fact – Stephanie just felt guilty.

"No, no." Sportacus quickly tried to sooth her. "Ella doesn't hate you, Stephanie. She didn't mean that."

She wanted to believe Sportacus. He'd never lied to them before, never let them down either – but Stephanie felt completely hopeless. She'd been so excited to see Ella there that she hadn't thought about the things she was saying. Hadn't even considered that Ella might be angry that she didn't have the nicest things to say about her uncle.

Stephanie only realised after what she'd done was just that – _mean_.

More tears started to surface and she felt terrible when Sportacus panicked. She could see the hero looking for the words to say to try and make it better, but he didn't have them. Besides Stephanie didn't want to be comforted at all.

"Sportacus?" She broke in, wincing at how shaky her own voice was, but pushed on all the same. "Please just…find her?"

At first Sportacus simply searched her face, looking for any sign that she would be alright if he left. He knew that Milford would be there to take care of Stephanie but he had to come back after initially losing sight of Ella to check on her.

Stephanie managed a tiny smile for him and Sportacus took that as enough, she was a strong girl – she'd be alright.

Nodding Sportacus slowly gathered back to his feet, managing a smile of his own to help assure Stephanie. "I'll find her." He promised, still able to feel his crystal buzzing against his chest. It had stopped crying out loud but he could still feel it, the crystal wouldn't settle down until everything was right once again.

Neither he nor Stephanie noticed the third set of eyes watching the scene, which was likely for the best because Robbie was reeling.

They'd lost Ella. They'd lost _Ella_.

"How did they lose my niece? In an _hour_?!" Robbie shrieked, waring between disbelief and anger.

Oh sure, he couldn't get rid of the girl for the life of him despite a solid week of effort and these fools could lose her in little under an afternoon. Yeah, no, that seemed logical. _Of course._

Robbie was furious and he had half a mind to march himself above ground and tell Sportaloser as much. Tell them all how infuriating they all were and how their near constant and never ending source of surprises were not welcome. His blood pressure was going to skyrocket at this rate. Just once he would like it if this town wasn't working against him.

He was prepared to go on like this, spitting and fuming to his heart's content…except then a thought occurred to him. He might have been angry but Ella was _missing_.

Unwelcome thoughts of the child being lost and scared began to creep into his mind and no matter how Robbie tried to ignore them or push them back out – they persisted. Becoming worse at the seconds trickled on by, Robbie's brain rather gleefully supplied all the 'what ifs' that he didn't want to consider.

What if she was hurt or scared? Would she be crying in some corner hidden away from the townspeople? What hope did they have of finding her when _he_ couldn't even find her?

Quickly Robbie's anger was turning into panic and even as the air around him seemed to warm with smug approval, Robbie paid it no mind. It was stupid of him to think that he'd actually washed his hands clean of the girl – one way or another she was going to be a problem. He couldn't very well leave her out there on her own and if Sportacus and his merry band of idiots couldn't look after her than what choice did that leave him?

Really he wished he was not that child's best option – but unfortunately for them both it seemed he was just that.

…  
…

One half hour stretched into a full hour and another two after that – still no luck finding Ella.

The children were being called home as the sun began to set and Sportacus was feeling more anxious with every minute the girl went unfound. His crystal had become more and more insistent, beginning to burn a little bit as it became irritated with its owner.

'What?' it seemed to say, buzzing angrily against his chest. 'Can't even find one child? What kind of hero are you?'

Sportacus was inclined to agree but he couldn't understand how he'd lost little Ella. When she first took off running he'd followed immediately, shocked but not scared of losing her. Ella was so young and he didn't think she'd actually practiced running a day in her life. But sure enough with the very first wall he vaulted over, she was gone.

He'd startled, skidding to a halt to look around. So sure that his eyes were playing tricks, she couldn't just be gone. Robbie was known for vanishing but he had years of practice as well as more than a little bit of magic on his side – but Ella? She couldn't do that surely. Sportacus looked around for her relentlessly, going so far as to look for any traces of those hidden passageways he knew Robbie had scattered around.

But nothing. No girl, no hidden vent or trap door. He found absolutely _nothing_.

After that the rest of the town had been informed by the mayor as to what had happened and of course all the children jumped on the chance to help. They were all good kids at heart and Sportacus felt a small swell of pride as he watched them scatter out in search. But as the hours passed and their efforts turned up nothing, he felt that pride dwindle into something sad. He hated seeing the looks of hopelessness on the children's faces and even as they protested giving up their searched at the behest of their parents – Sportacus knew they couldn't stay out there once night set in.

They did not want to lose anyone else once the sunset.

Stephanie took it the worst of all and as Sportacus continued his search, doubling back to check places he knew he had looked, he saw her shadow in the mayor's window. The lights were on and he couldn't make out any expression with little more than a silhouette to go off of, but he could guess. Sportacus had promised to get Ella back, he'd promised and the longer this took the more he was letting them all down.

Again the crystal buzzed, a touch more violently. 'What kind of hero are you?'

"I know." He muttered, flinging himself over another wall out of habit more than any real energy of his own. "I _know_."

They crystal didn't settle down, it wouldn't until the child was found and even then Sportacus would carry the weight of it's disapproval for days after. This crystal that was now his and had once belonged to his grandfather – well Sportacus felt that it distinctly disliked him. It would always go off when trouble was afoot – it was just in its nature – but that did not mean it had to like him.

A hero and his crystal were partners in a sense but Sportacus thought that his crystal found him to be a subpar replacement for his family.

Tying his best not to let his own personal troubles distract him from helping a lost girl Sportacus continued his search. He'd climbed across every rooftop in Lazytown, scaled every tree and gone through every undergrowth – nothing. He was doing something wrong, he just didn't know what that was.

Then he saw it.

A blur of motion so abrupt that he almost missed it, just out of the corner of his eye and cloaked heavily in some type of concealment charm – that was Robbie's periscope. For a fleeting moment Sportacus stopped running, having been sure he'd just seen the unusual pair of googly eyes. Then again he saw the shape shoot up behind a wall a few meters further down the road.

Almost on a whime, Sportacus followed behind it. Again and again the periscope shot up, whirled around once or twice and then disappeared only to repeat the process a little further away.

Sportacus found this to be odd. He knew for a fact Robbie wouldn't be sleeping this early or at all given his track record for sleepless nights. He also knew that Robbie woudn't be trying to spy on the kids right now, it was unlikely he had a new scheme up his sleeve this soon and without the kids outside to make noise he had no reason to be checking in.

That was…unless….

"He's looking for Ella." Sportacus whispered, the realisation all but punching the air out of him.

Robbie Rotten – the man that had only a few hours earlier told him that he wanted nothing to do with Ella and would be pleased to have her off his hands – was looking for her. If the frantic motions of the periscope were anything to go off, he was desperate as well.

For a while Sportacus could only watch the periscope shoot out of the ground across town time and time again. He wondered why Robbie couldn't have been more honest, wondered why he couldn't have had a little more faith in the man.

Ella hadn't protested at all, trusting the pair of them to do what was best for her – and this is where it got them.

No longer needing the buzz of his crystal to feel like a failure, Sportacus shot off again. He had to find her, he wouldn't sleep – nine past eight or not – until she was safe again. He went back, did it all again. Sportacus didn't care how many times he had to look he was going to keep searching until he found what he'd missed.

They crystal hadn't been able to show him anything, not a single image or hint of where she was. Usually the crystal would give him something. A feeling, sight from the person's eyes, an image of the area – just something to give him some direction. But he got nothing tonight, it was as though the crystal couldn't see Ella anymore than he could.

That thought didn't mean much to him at first, but then Sportacus had it go through his head again and abruptly stopped running. He already knew the answer, he'd thought of it the precise moment he first lost sight of her.

 _Vanishing._

Oh yes, Ella wouldn't be able to do it. She was far too young and while she no doubt shared Robbie's blood – Sportacus didn't actually know what Robbie _was_.

But regardless there was undoubtedly magic there and while Ella might be unable to turn herself into wisps of smoke of move herself around at will, there was every chance that she had a few other tricks he didn't know about.

More to the point– someone else could have laid any number of charms or enchantments on her.

It felt like tapping back into a muscle he hadn't stretched in years. A skill he hadn't dusted off for as long as he'd been a hero and one that wasn't nearly as simple as climbing back onto a bike. Touching back into his magic was difficult but Sportacus need only think about the lost child to find his motivation to try harder. He wasn't going to preform any great feats of magic, didn't know if he even could anymore, but he could at the very least look for traces of it.

What he found was something like a cobweb. One draped across every inch of Lazytown.

Startled by the sheer volume of magic threads he could see stretching out across the town, Sportacus was briefly left at a loss.

The numerous threads, some old and others alarmingly recent, were all in different colours. He recognised a few as his own – extremely weak and mostly unintentional. Not unlike Robbie's claim over his lair. In fact he could spot Robbie's influence a mile away.

His threads were distinctive to Sportacus, they were fresh and aged alike – all a distinguishing purple hue. He almost smiled at the sight, thinking it was fitting of Robbie. There were other colours and types of thread that Sportacus did not recognise. At least not intimately. There were faint golden chains strung up high above his head, attached to only heavens knows what. They were shimmering and clearly very old.

Among the gold there was also another magic signature that Sportacus was more familiar with, an auburn shade that was just shy of being gold itself. His heart ached a little bit at the sight of yellow and auburn magic signatures. His family had left far more in the town beyond their memory and he hadn't even attempted to match their magical ties to Lazytown.

Trying not to let himself get waylaid by those thoughts Sportacus began to search through the threads, gingerly moving between them in a conscious effort not to disturb any of them. He couldn't tell what each was form and it would simply be in poor taste to accidentally undo any of them.

Gold, purple, auburn, yellow, blue, the rare thread of something black that left Sportacus with a chill down his spine and an abundance of pink as well. Then finally something that wasn't quite purple but wasn't quite pink either. That would be Ella. It was the colour of her teddybear.

Sportacus was careful when he found this string. It was like his own – extraordinarily weak and not at all intentional. Sportacus found the first strand was a little older than what he expected. It was buried into the ground behind one of the walls surrounding the playground. If he were to guess he'd say it had been left there for at least a few days – probably since Sunday or Monday.

Next he found something more recent and exactly where he expected it to be. A new thread shooting out from around the bend he'd first lost sight of her. So there had been some form of magic there. Sportacus followed this one. Carefully tracing it through the town without daring to touch in case it broke under his fingers. The charm would lose its power if he did, but at the same time he would be left without a way to find her.

What he noticed while following the colour of Ella's magic was that the pink strings followed hers very closely. They were brighter, stronger and far older than any of hers. Sportacus frowned down at the string as it ran along side Ella's own and if he were to guess he'd say that would be her father's magic. It was not difficult for these strings to be attached to people so he wasn't surprised to see one had moved with Ella – but there were other pinks strands littered around the town. Many of them far older than this one, had Ella's father once lived in Lazytown?

Curious but not ready to let it distract him from the job at hand, Sportacus followed the lilac string all the way back to the grass fields and he knew where she was before the strong finished.

The sun had set by now and Sportacus was working with little more than the light of his crystal but as he stood on the ground staring up at the children's tree house he knew his search was over. The strings went up and inside tree house and Sportacus took a moment to gather himself before he jumped up after them.

Landing softly as he could on the rickety wooden floorboards, Sportacus carefully looked around the tree house. It felt strange to be positioning himself between a girl that he could not see and the door. He did not mean to be intimidating, but if she scampered out while he still hadn't properly found her they'd have to do this all again and he wasn't built to stay up late.

The tree house had changed since he'd last been inside. Most notably was the blackboard, which was now sporting new names. It took him a moment to figure out that Wobby was probably Robbie and despite everything he had to bite down a laugh at that. He recognised Ella's full name and then felt some sort of vague remembrance at seeing the one under it.

Glanni, Sportacus knew that name.

He'd head it somewhere but he couldn't quite place the memory. Instead he focused on trying to find the child. Which proved to be difficult because it seemed whatever magic was involved it was very good magic and Sportacus couldn't see anyone at a glance. Taking a moment to adjust his eyes to both magic and the dark, he tried again. It was only when he noticed his eyes trying to shift away and blurring when he passed over one spot in the tree house that he knew he'd found her.

Despite the sting of looking directly at a glamour designed to turn people's eyes away, Sportacus forced his eyes to stay focused and crept deeper into the tree house. In the darkness Sportacus could just make out the shape of something vaguely human shaped curled up in the corner. The longer he looked and the more firmly he told his own eyes he was seeing someone there, the easier it got.

Very quietly he spoke. "Ella?" The human shape twitched and curled in on itself tighter. He tried again. "Ella, you're not in trouble. Please come out."

There was a pliable silence for a few seconds as Sportacus waited the child out. And then very slowly he saw her beginning to uncurl and for a moment felt hopeful. However the harsh tone he was answered with dashed that.

" _Liar_."

Ella's voice hissed and Sportacus startled. It was definitely Ella speaking, but it sounded off. Perhaps an effect of the concealing charm, but no less unsettling. "Elves _lie_." She continued in that voice that was both hers and not at the same time. "You always lie." She insisted and Sportacus thought he could pick up a second tone there, one that was clearly a male's voice.

"You lie and cheat. Never thank and elf. Never take food from an elf. Never trust honey sweet words from an elf. Never make a deal. If an elf chases you, run. If an elf catches you, fight. If you cannot do either – _hide_."

Each rule sent a small chill down Sportacus's spine. These were old teachings, out dated in many respects and yet in others still very important rules to follow. Sportacus had heard tales of elves that never left the dark ages behind – he'd been warned of their trickery along with countless other creatures. But for the most part these rules were no longer in use, not at significant as they'd once been.

What were these teachings doing coming out of Ella's mouth?

"I promise you, I'm not lying. I would never hurt you. Never hurt _anyone_." He tried, willing his sincerity to shine through in every word. He did not know if he was capable of a lie and dearly hoped Ella would see that too.

There was another pause and Ella shifted again. He couldn't make out any of her distinct features, just a vague outline of where the child should have been in the room. "You won't trick me?" She asked with deliberate slowness, some of that other voice bleeding out of her words. Encouraged by this Sportacus risked a step forward but immediately froze when Ella shrank away again.

"I won't." He promised without hesitation.

"You won't hit me?"

Sportacus's stomach twisted into tight knots, but he didn't ask her why she would ask that. Didn't dare say anything besides another promise.

"I won't."

"You won't lock me away?" Her voice was just one now, just hers and the questions continued.

"I won't."

"You won't…send me away?"

Without a single breath of hesitation. "Never."

Suddenly the charm was dropped.

It all but shattered, the remaining fragments of magic melting away as Ella reappeared in her entirety and immediately flung herself into Sportacus's chest. His arms instinctively came up to catch the girl and she was crying before she'd even grabbed a hold of his shirt.

Quietly he hushed the girl, not willing to hear a single one of her sobbed apologise. He didn't want to listen to her say she'd been bad or disobedient or that she'd hurt someone. He didn't need to hear any of that, anything she might have done wrong had been forgiven hours prior and now all that mattered was that she was safe again and he was able to sooth away some of her tears.

The crystal stopped buzzing.

Sportacus's attention was split away from Ella once he noticed a few remaining shards of pink magic haphazardly trying to cling onto the girl that no longer needed them. The string he'd followed along side hers was still wound firmly around Ella.

More than one actually. He could see tiny threads stretching out across her body, invisible to the naked eye. Dozens of them, so many that Sportacus's head was almost spinning.

Her father had been very thorough with his magic.

Which may have explained how she'd so easily weaved a concealment charm while fleeing from Sportacus earlier. But it begged the question as to _why_.

At a glance Sportacus could hazard a guess as to what most of the enchantments were for. These were protection charms. He vaguely remembered the burn Ella's box had given him earlier that day.

Protection charms and anti-elf wards. Not only that but that had clearly been her father's influence driving her words moments earlier.

Ella's father, Robbie's _brother,_ clearly had no love of elves and had left his daughter with countless protections against them. But why? Sportacus kept wondering why this elaborate magical net had been weaved. Especially given that Robbie seemed intent on painting his brother as far lazier and unfriendlier than himself. A deadbeat Robbie had said. A no good criminal that couldn't care less if his daughter was alive or dead so long as she was out of his hair.

A man who did not care would not spend so much energy creating wards and enchantments like these.

Promising to get to the bottom of it once everything had calmed down, Sportacus turned it attention back to Ella. Her crying had quietened down now and he was still murmuring gentle nothings to her without realising it. He could paly detective later; search for answers when Ella was safe and sound back home.

"I'm so sorry…" Ella whispered, only slightly less hysterical now. "I didn't mean to push her…I just…she was saying such mean things about Robbie." Jolting up Ella looked at Sportacus pleadingly. She still had big fat tears leaking from her eyes and Sportacus could see she'd been crying long before he'd shown up. She looked exhausted.

"Robbie isn't bad." She told him desperately. "I promise he isn't. Please you have to believe me, he's not bad."

"I know, I know." Sportacus murmured, again gently shushing Ella before she could work herself up again. "I know Robbie isn't bad. A little lazy and grumpy – but not bad."

Gradually Ella seemed to take this to be enough to satisfy her for now and settled back down into Sportacus's arms. "How about we get you home?" He offered her gently. "I think you've been away for far too long."

"Home…" Ella mumbled not looking all that certain where that even was.

So Sportacus decided it was high time he showed her exactly where home was.

Gently he gathered Ella up into his arms and was a little surprised when she insisted on riding on his back again. He didn't stop her from situation herself against his shoulder blades of course, and once he knew she was secure they set off again.

Getting out of the tree house was an easy jump but Ella still squealed for the short distance, burying her hands into his hat as though it would give her a little more balance. Sportacus was relieved that the cry was followed by a nervous giggle – she didn't sound ready to be happy again just yet, but it was a start.

Optimism was never a bad idea in Sportacus's mind.

But perhaps he should have known better when Ella asked her next question. "Mister hero?" She began in a tired voice, keeping herself quiet, as though she was cautious of being too loud. "Do you have a family?"

At first Sportacus hesitated, his feet pausing just for a split second before he was able to continue walking and pretend he hadn't just stuttered. "Everyone has family." He answered vaguely and would have left it at that had he not still been wary of the girl's mood. In an effort to keep her from crying anymore on the way to the back home, Sportacus continued. "My parents lived far away from here, high up in the mountains with my grandfather. We speak occasionally by letter." He explained, able to feel his own words getting away from him.

He hadn't sent letters to Afi or his parents in a while now and again there was that small tug of guilt in the back of his head. The family was not known to keep in close contact, not because they were not incredibly fond or very close to one another, but simply because they _were_. There was no need to talk frequently to reassure one another that they were still cared for and thought of.

But a letter every few decades was appreciated to let one another know that they were all still alive.

Sportacus smiled to himself before he told Ella the next part of his family tree. "I have six brothers and sister." He heard Ella's little amazed gasp and couldn't help but laugh softly. "It's a pretty big family." He mused just before Ella scrambled her way up onto his shoulders. For a moment he didn't know what she was doing but then suddenly her little face appeared upside down in front of his eyes.

He could still clearly see how red her eyes were from crying, but now there was enough wonder there to warm her expression again. He would keep talking if it would keep her happy.

" _Six_?" She whispered, lilac eyes huge on her face.

"Five sisters and an older brother." Sportacus explained, now being careful not to let Ella fall off his shoulders as she kept herself balanced to look at him.

Then it all came tumbling out.

Anything that came into his mind was suddenly on his tongue, given freely and without needing any more prompting than Ella's awe filled eyes staring back at him. The years he'd spent chasing after his grandfather's shadow, just for the old man to laugh when he tripped over his own two feet before pulling him up again with a quick word of encouragement and the promise of a strong future. Sportacus recalled each of his sisters and their individual quirks. Being the second youngest of seven children left Sportacus at the mercy of his sisters at times.

Ella seemed to think it was wonderful, hearing about how the two youngest girls insisted he let them find clothes to suit him. He still wore blue as a kind of paid respect to their decree that it was his finest colour. His second eldest sister would show him how to do a handstand and whipped his flips into shape while their eldest would spend her hours meditating and trying to get some peace and quiet from the house. Sportacus could never sit still for very long, but she'd managed to drag her little brother down onto the grass sometimes – teach him about the value of stopping to take a deep breath and let his thoughts settle.

The stories continued as they walked back through the grass fields, each one coming to his mind faster than the last. Thought and moments he'd all but buried away and allowed to gather dust, all suddenly dragged back up to shine brilliantly in his memory once again.

His father, whom he had spent hours training with in the hopes he would one day become a hero worthy of both his father and afi's admiration. The stories his mother would weave for the children once the sun had settled behind the mountain range. Tales of other heroes and far away courts, of magic and lands far away. Some tales made to caution, others to inspire – not a single one without at least a shred of truth and all of them an adventure.

Ella didn't speak anymore, she settled down atop his shoulders with her little arms cradling her head. She listened to Sportacus speak, finding a sort of melody in the stories, a comfort in each warm memory he offered up. Ella noticed a slight hope in the hero's step had returned and smiled to herself, it was nice to see him happy again. Ever since they'd talked back at Robbie's home – he'd been dragging his feet, looking almost as miserable as she had felt. Although he tried to hide it – this hero was transparent.

That was good, she could trust transparency. Perhaps her papa would forgive her for placing trust in an elf – but Sportacus felt like a good person and Ella couldn't doubt him when he spoke with such honesty and kindness. Maybe it would be alright to let this elf be her friend, he'd searched for her all night after all and he hadn't so much as shouted at her once she'd been found.

"And your brother?" Ella asked when there was a pause in the stories. "Papa talks lots about uncle Robbie, what about your brother?"

Sportacus hesitated and Ella noticed. She always noticed, the key to staying alive was to watch for pauses like that. Weaknesses, gaps in attention – Sportacus didn't try to hide his own. Curious the child's fingers tightened idly on that funny floppy hat Sportacus wore. It looked nicer in blue, but she missed the little bell thing that other hero's hat had.

"Íþróttaálfurinn was…" He looked for the right words, a jumble of more recent feelings colliding and clashing with those from childhood. "He was the oldest." Sportacus settled on finally. "Until my little sister was born we were the furthest apart. So we didn't play together much. But sometimes he and afi would take me out and we'd train together. I liked that." He admitted gently, a faint smile tugging on his lips.

The stories of Íþró as a young man were easy. He remembered clearly following after his older brother with admiration in his eyes, watching as Íþró took the steps he needed to take in order to become a hero. He still remembered very clearly the hours he spent mirroring his older brother, and the rare instances where Íþró would speak to him and correct his form. Most days he didn't seem to notice Sportacus's efforts to follow in his footsteps, always too busy pushing on ahead with his own ambitions.

"I haven't seen him in many years." Sportacus told Ella eventually. "I haven't seen any of them for a while."

"What?" Ella looked horrified and he could feel her tugging at his hat in protest. "Family should never be apart that long!" She protested and while Sportacus understood her disapproval he wanted to tell her it was alright. They knew they loved one another, there was no need to go any further than that.

He opened his mouth to reassure her that it was alright when the harsh tugging abruptly stopped. "Aren't you lonely?" She asked him, voice lowering into a whisper. "Without them?"

"Ella?" Sportacus turned slightly trying to catch a glimpse of the child's expression but judging by her tone alone it would be a miserable one.

"I miss papa."

Sportacus expression dimed and once again he found himself without an answer. Children's games and health were easy. Exercise, fun and friends – all that he could help with. But things like this often felt beyond him. Still Ella needed something from him and Sportacus wouldn't let her down. She was part of this town now after all – that made her one of his kids.

"I know you do." He said gently, staring up into the sky as they walked.

The stars had come out brilliantly that night, none of the city pollution there to block them out. Ella seemed to notice this and followed his gaze upwards.

She was amazed by the sight and Sportacus could hear her soft little gasp of wonder. If she could take comfort in the stars then Sportacus knew he could help her feel a little bit better. After all she was always going to have this view in Lazytown. The stars weren't going anywhere. "But you know, we're still all under the same sky." He told her quietly, the crunch of his boots across the dried leaves perhaps louder than his words.

"And if you're able to think of them and still feel your love for them in your chest when you do, then it really doesn't feel like they're that far away."

Ella managed a tiny giggle, the sound gentler than Sportacus had expected. She then lowered herself back down and looped her arms across his forehead, he legs dangling over his shoulders in a decidedly lazy way.

"Sometimes mister hero," She told him quietly. "You say the silliest things."

He noticed Ella's body growing lax on his shoulders and carefully adjusted his hold to account for her being to doze off. Sportacus could all but feel her smiling when she added.

"The most wonderful things."


	11. Chapter 11

That's it, he was calling in the military.

Or the Mayhem Town Gang, or – god forbid – Glanni. Whichever was the least suicidal and stupid of that list. So probably the military.

Robbie hadn't stopped moving since he first heard about his missing niece that after noon. He's scoured the town from top to bottom and seen Sportacus doing just the same. Neither of them had any luck.

If the town do gooder couldn't find his little girl and he couldn't either, then what else could he do?

Calling anyone was reason enough for reluctance but calling his brother of all people suddenly brought up the question of how valid that liquidation threat had been.

Would Glanni take offense to him having lost a whole child? Probably. He'd most definitely take offense to him essentially offering her up for adoption and – now Robbie wasn't sure if his brother was capable of instantaneously combusting, but if he could then he would once he realised Robbie had pawned one of their own off to a flipping, number wearing, inspiration spouting, too good, _hero_!

He had been run ragged. The energy of using the periscope might have been laughable on the surface, but if people thought that using any charmed device was easy they were barking mad. He had a deceive designed to be able to appear anywhere in Lazytown and had been pouring himself over it all night – of course he was exhausted! He used his magic so sparingly, a disguise here, a vanishing trick there – nothing like the extensiveness of the periscope.

Robbie had crafted the device well over five years ago when he'd first needed eyes everywhere at any given time. It had served him well in the past but as of late it had been used for little more than spying on those brats – to suddenly have it being used to monitor a whole town for any sigh of Ella – well it was draining mentally and physically.

Collapsing became a very real threat after three hours of this nonsense and Robbie could feel his own body beginning to give out on him as the fourth crept in. What he didn't notice was the exact moment he did finally break.

The combination of fatigue and sleepless nights was what got him. He didn't even realise he'd nodded off at the reigns until the all too familiar tapping began.

At first Robbie jumped, squawking in alarm. Then he calmed down enough to recognise it as someone banging on the hatch and became angry. It was only when he opened his mouth to shout at them to go away out of habit that he noticed something very important.

That was a four beat tap.

Robbie had never allowed the hatch to open faster or demanded someone come into his lair with more vigour. He hadn't even checked to see who it was and so he was surprised when what fell down the shoot wasn't a small girl but instead a blue elf.

He was ready to begin the verbal lashing.

How dare you come down here. How dare you lose my child. How dare you take her in the first place. How dare I-!

But Robbie stopped. There in Sportacus's arms was little Ella. Safe and sound and very much asleep. She had clearly been crying and Robbie felt anger boiling up in his chest again as he took note of the dried tears. He wanted to start flinging accusations, tell Sportacus it was entirely his fault this had happened. But he knew better than that and guilt strangled the accusations in his throat.

Ella wouldn't have been in this situation if he'd just told Sportakook to flip right back to his blimp when he first came down to the lair asking for her.

So instead of all his angry words, Robbie simply rushed over to the elf and child, gathering the latter up in his arms.

If Sportacus was surprised by the speed with which Robbie collected Ella and cradled her to his chest – the hero said nothing of it. Instead he silently relinquished his hold of Ella to the frantic villain.

It was easy to see how desperate Robbie was, proving his earlier assumptions and Sportacus couldn't help but smile warmly as he watched Robbie check Ella for injuries not once but twice before he was satisfied she hadn't lost a limb somewhere along the way. With a heavy sigh of relied that Sportacus didn't think Robbie even knew he'd let out, the man simply settled for hugging the sleeping girl tight.

Seconds passed and Sportacus didn't dare interrupt. Then finally Robbie calmed down enough to look at the hero in his lair.

There was something begrudging in the way he eyed the blue hero, and Sportacus wouldn't have been surprised if Robbie had just told him to get out. Instead what came out of the taller man's mouth was "Where did you find her?"

"The tree house." Sportacus answered automatically and was a little bit surprised when Robbie groaned.

"Of course…" He grumbled angrily under his breath. "Obviously it was the tree house."

Robbie's gaze then swivelled back over to Sportacus. A touch defensive now, bordering on suspicious. "And why did you bring her back here?" It looked as though he was about to continue on to say something about not wanting her only to remember he was currently clutching Ella to him for dear life, and thought better of that lie.

"I told her I'd bring her home." Sportacus explained calmly, offering up a small smile like it was obvious. "So I brought her home."

The feeling that assaulted Robbie from hearing that was some unholy mixture of relief, apprehension and something warm he couldn't place. It was all too much and despite making him smile, Robbie felt like he was being squeezed too tight. His chest aching terribly.

Despite himself Robbie let out a half laugh, it almost broke into a disbelieving sob but he managed not to break down entirely. "I'll feed her cake." He told Sportacus, his voice cracking a little bit this time. "And she will have naps, and she'll go to bed late, sleep in even later. A-and I'll teach her about disguises and tricks and… _and_..."

He couldn't keep going, the words falling apart on him until he knew he couldn't muster up anymore.

So instead he just held Ella as tight as he could without hurting her. Taking comfort in her tiny breaths and the occasional almost snore that he knew she was going to blame on him when she was old enough to be embarrassed about it.

She was warm, and alive, and _here_ – right there in his arms. That was almost enough; actually it was almost too much. Because for a moment back there he'd thought she was really gone. Robbie hadn't been so scared in two years.

"I won't be a good guardian." He warned after a few seconds to compose himself.

He was under no illusions as to how pathetic he must have looked, craddling the child like his one and only lifeline. Robbie knew if it were anyone else, anyone less kind and stupidly sentimental, that Sportacus would have scorned him.

But instead…

"You are."

Was all Sportacus said and Robbie didn't have any words to give in return. As if knowing Robbie was unable to do anything more, Sportacus approached the pair.

He must have seen the way Robbie instinctively held Ella closer, as if expecting Sportacus to try and snatch her away again. It was a ridiculous reaction to have but Sportacus didn't so much as give him an odd look for it. Instead he looked over both Robbie and Ella with a gentle smile.

"You'll look after her." He murmured, sounding as sure of this as he was sure apples were the key to a happy, healthy life.

Sportacus's confidence in him was startling. It shouldn't have been but Robbie found himself constantly being left at a loss because of this flippity idiot. Then after a moment of thought Sportacus began to fidget, looking just a little more anxious. "But…maybe _some_ sportscandy? Once in a while? School as well, she should go. She'll need to make friends and she'll want to play games and…"

Sportacus stopped, taking a deep breath before his own concerns could get away from him. "Please just try to keep that in mind?"

"A compromise then?" Robbie murmured sceptically but despite his hesitant tone, Sportacus positively lit up.

"Exactly! A compromise."

"In return you keep all that icky sportscandy out of my lair."

"Deal, but you have to let her go to school."

"Urg. What did school ever teach anyone?" Robbie groused but noticed Sportacus looked ready to refute that. "Don't." He snipped sharply. "Alright, you get your lousy school, but she gets naps and if she doesn't want to play your inane sports you leave her out of it – you hear me your muscle bound sports freak?"

Sportacus was still lighting up the room with his beaming smile and Robbie wondered if his conditions were not harsh enough.

"One more condition." He added and Robbie didn't think he'd ever seen mischief on Sportacus's face before. He hadn't been sure that expression was within his capabilities. Had he not been so suspicious of it Robbie may have even been surprised. "No more lies about wanting her gone."

Robbie bristled, a rebuttal on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to say he'd meant every word of it, but then Ella squirmed a little bit in his arms and all his arguments just flew right out of his head. "Alright…" Robbie agreed quietly. "Alright, that's acceptable."

He wouldn't be his brother, Robbie wouldn't allow Ella to grow up thinking she was unwanted. Robbie could be better than Glanni in just that one small way. No more lies just to hide behind his own insecurities. Just this once, for just this one thing. Robbie could manage that much.

It was strange that Robbie did not immediately chase Sportacus out after that.

Instead he went about setting up a proper bed for Ella – which Sportacus pointedly didn't ask about – as though the hero wasn't still there.

"Don't gawk." Robbie snapped when he caught Sportacus staring at the lesser-used rooms of the lair. He knew that Robbie's home had more than its main foyer but he hadn't expected it to be as intricate as all this.

There were rooms he didn't think had been used inyears, shut off with a decidedly gloomy look about them. None of which Robbie so much as glanced at when they approached the room that would be Ella's. Knowing that Ella would have a proper bedroom did put his fears to rest however.

Occasionally he'd glance in Sportacus's direction and make a quick command. Bring that pillow, help me pull this blanket out – make yourself useful for gods sake.

All of which Sportacus did happily. Part of him knew he ought to leave right away rather than wait for Robbie's tolerance to run thin, but he wasn't quite prepared to go just yet.

He knew perfectly well that this was a rare sight, Robbie so mellowed and without a hint of mischief about him. It was not something he'd be privy to often if Robbie had his say – so for now Sportacus marvelled in the sight.

It was late and he was exhausted, but still Sportacus stayed until Ella was tucked into bed.

Ella was out like a light, curling up under the blankets with her bear – which Sportacus didn't remember her having earlier – tucked under her arm. He wanted to ask Robbie if he'd gotten it while searching for his niece across town but thought better of it. Robbie wouldn't like it pointed out to him that he'd gone and done yet another nice thing that day.

There must have been some natural limit to how much he could handle in one sitting.

The pair of them left the girl to her sleep. The coming days were going to be exhausting and unlike her uncle she wasn't like to function on only a few hours of rest. Perhaps she'd take to the school, maybe she wouldn't. Some children just never did and Robbie certainly wasn't going to sell the idea for her.

But it was still a step better than what would have been. In fact, Sportacus was willing to bet all of this was far better than what would have been that girl's life had she not come to Lazytown.

"Robbie, about your brother." Sportacus began as they entered the lair's main chamber again, only now feeling like he could speak at a normal volume again.

"What about him?" Robbie grumbled, purposely not looking at Sportacus. There was a warning in his voice that Sportacus was wary of. Robbie was not his brother's biggest fan currently.

"He wouldn't happen to be Glanni Glæpur…would he?"

The answer was in the way Robbie's shoulders tensed sharply, the muscled coiling up tight under his skin. Even his silence was deafening in its meaning. Still Robbie didn't face Sportacus for a couple of more seconds. When he did speak it was with a hiss. "How do you know him? Heard stories have you?"

"His name…gets around." Sportacus admitted reluctantly, the words as near a white lie as the hero could manage. "Your last names, they're-?"

"Are none of your business." Robbie interrupted, whirling on Sportacus, thrusting his finger at his crystal holder. Sportacus felt the crystal bristling angrily but it hadn't started to beep so he didn't believe Robbie was going to flat out attack him.

"Robbie." He tried to appease the man before he could get too riled up. Difficult to do considering how easy it was for Robbie to fly off the rails. "Please, I just want to help."

"Yes that _is_ your shtick isn't it?" Robbie sneered, glaring down at the elf with a look that seemed out of place on Robbie's face.

Of course he'd always scowled and spat at Sportacus in the past, but this glare felt heavier. Like he _meant_ it.

Despite Robbie's stare all but daring him to keep talking, Sportacus wasn't ready to leave it at that. "I'm not trying to pry." Although he had the distinct feeling he was going to do just that nonetheless. "But don't you find it at all odd?"

"Odd?" Robbie seethed and Sportacus almost shivered. "In what way?"

"The box. The ward, the strings, the _rules_." Sportacus knew he was speaking a little too quickly, rattling off what he could remember faster than he could think to silence himself.

He and Robbie had never addressed magic head on. They'd had no need to. Robbie had his tricks and disguises and Sportacus was a 'slightly-above-average' hero.

It never particularly mattered if it was magic or not but now here he was breaking that silent agreement in a gush of barely explained words.

Robbie looked at him like he was crazy but then gradually his gaze drifted over to the box by his chair. Sportacus winced when he followed Robbie's eyes, not fancying trying to touch it again. Even now he could see the box was practically covered in pink threads. Anti-elf wards, seals, and an assortment of protection charms – at a glance. He could only imagine what else had been infused with the wood.

He watched as Robbie thought it all over. Sportacus could almost see him looking over memories in a new light and wondered how many more odd things Robbie had seen but brushed off up until this point. Then finally he gave a rough sigh and shook his head.

"I've never pretended to understand Glanni." Robbie began slowly, each word sharp and irritated. "I don't think I'd want to even if I could, but I know this – he is possessive not protective. Whatever you have mistaken for… care -" He spat the words, as though applying it to his brother was some great disservice to the expression. "– it most certainly is _not_."

Sportacus wanted to protest. Surely his brother cared about him and Ella. Surely he had to care about his own child – criminal or not. There had to be some explanation as to why he'd done things this way.

By Robbie's description he'd simply dumped Ella in the easiest, fastest way he could – but to Sportacus nothing about this looked easy. It looked like it had been designed. Still Robbie's eyes were hard and his brows knitted together into a stubborn glower.

"Listen Sportakook – if I ever see my brother again it'll be too soon. Thankfully for all of us he's not likely to come back here any time in this century. Count your blessings for that." Sportacus frowned as Robbie stepped away from him, deliberately turning his back to Sportacus. "I know you mean it when you have that whole puppy dog act going, being a perfect saint. It's positively revolting, but I _know_ you mean it. Glanni would probably be more inclined to see you dead than he would chase you out of town."

If he hadn't known any better – and let be honest here, he truly didn't – Sportacus might have been inclined to think that Robbie actually sounded concerned for him. So of course that's exactly what he thought and Robbie must have felt the smile that was practically leaping off his face because he let out an irritated huff.

"Whatever silly thoughts you have flying around between those pointy ears of yours about my brother – forget them." He advised quietly. "You should know better by now than to have expectations of rotten men."

There was a sudden surge of objection in Sportacus and all at once too many different protests shot into the forefront his mind. They cluttered up and tied his tongue, resulting in a strained silence as he looked for just one that would do away with Robbie's implications. Robbie did not wait for him to find it.

"Now buzz off." Robbie demanded with a flippant wave of his arm. "It's ungodly late for a health nut like you to be awake. Leave the insomnia to the real adults." Sportacs stepped forward, a protest on the tip of his tongue but Robbie beat him to it. "Out." He commanded a smirk behind the word. "Or I'll remove sportscandy from our deal and replace it with sugar apples. Ella seems rather fond of those."

Sportacus huffed, stopping his approached to instead stare at the back of Robbie's head. It wasn't until the man glanced back at him with a wily grin that he knew it would be in his and Ella's best interest to leave. A compromise really should not have been dependant on Robbie getting his way, but for tonight at least Sportacus was willing to relent.

With only one last word of his own.

"You know." He called back to Robbie while moving towards the exit. "She thinks the world of you."

It may have been cruel of him in a way. To say something he knew would sit with Robbie for hours to come but Sportacus couldn't bring himself to regret saying it as he glanced back at Robbie on his way out of the lair and caught the man smiling.

That was more than enough for him.

…  
…

 _Little under a fortnight earlier._

Busy City was a wretched place at the best of times, but at night it was positively dreadful. Which was precisely why Glanni Glæpur had originally chosen to move here after leaving Lazytown behind.

It fit him better. Ran more his speed and provided more than enough in the way of heists and scheme opportunities. Most importantly it had– at the time he moved there – been completely devoid of all elves.

Times change.

 _Lots_ of things had changed.

"Now sweetie." Her father's voice was ragged, the words coming out hushed and hurried. She wanted to tell him that running wasn't strictly part of hide-and-seek and that he'd never really liked exercising. They'd run all the way here and she was beginning to grow tired of this game, she didn't see why it had to include such a workout.

Ella stared up at her papa, finding it strange that he wasn't wearing his typical catsuit. It wasn't that what he was wearing was all that unusual. Her papa put on all sorts of beautiful clothes, but she hadn't seen this one before. There was so much purple in it, the collar even looked like a fluffy white caterpillar around his throat.

She thought he looked dashing in it of course, her papa made clothes look good. That was what he always told her anyway. But despite the bright colours of the flashy clothes, her father didn't look all that excited. He looked strange like this, barely smiling with a tightness around his eyes. Unconsciously Gabriella held onto his hands tighter.

She couldn't say why, but she wanted to try and get that expression off of her papa's face.

"Be a good girl now." He continued gently, his hands kept moving. Shifting from touching her cheeks to her hair and then her shoulders. It was like Glanni couldn't decide where to put his hands in order to keep Ella's attention firmly on him and was desperately trying to memories the details of her face. "I know, I know." He murmured gently, patting back Ella's hair before adjusting the bow he'd pinned to her chest. "Sweetheart I _know_ —" There was a sound behind her father and Glanni jumped in alarm.

He glanced over his shoulder, searching for anything that might have been out of place; anything that might have told him exactly what had made the sound. Likely just a stray cat knocking over some trashcans, but it still left Glani's heart beating wildly in his chest and urged him to stop wasting time.

Feeling pressed for time he urgently returned his attentions to Ella. He had to be faster, couldn't waste anymore time.

"I…" Glanni sucked in an unsteady gulp of air. Couldn't let her see how petrified he was, had to smile – had to be the one calling the shots. He could do that – he was nothing if not an actor. But he'd never pulled this particular performance, in front of his daughter no less. "…I know I always tell you to…well to be rotten, but just this once you have to be a good girl for papa, okay? Can you do that?"

She was getting a little scared now. Ella didn't like this game anymore.

"Papa…?" Quickly Glanni shushed her and tried to put on a more familiar grin. One that would reassure her this was just one more game, just another scheme he had going. Everything was fine, he could make it seem like this was fun.

"Remember the rules?" Glanni asked her quickly. "Come on sweetie, what are the rules? You can't have a game without rules."

"Quiet in the box." Ella told him brightly, perking up when she could show off her good memory to her father. "Quiet in the box until uncle…uncle um…"

"Robbie." Glanni reminded her and couldn't; help but smile when she attempted to repeat the name and completely butchered the R, replacing it with a W. Ella would recognise his brother, they looked similar enough and she seemed enthralled by that hair of his in the pictures Glanni had showed her the night before. So long as she knew his face, it didn't matter what she called her uncle.

Her uncle who had better be smart enough to know what Glanni would do to him if he failed to look after his daughter.

"Into the box now." He instructed and Glanni tried not to let his hands shake as he gently helped his daughter settled down into the padded container.

Was it enough? Would she be comfortable in there with just some glow sticks and cushions? The trip would be quick, Glanni made sure of that much, she wouldn't be in there long at all, but still he felt the almost obsessive need to give her more blankets.

"Here, I brought your favourite, for the trip." Ella's face lit up in that wonderful way it did whenever Glanni showed her a magic trick, pulling the lavender bear from the seemingly empty space inside his coat.

There was another sound, this one further away but more distinctly made by something with two feet and a purpose.

Glanni didn't turn to check, knew that his nerves would only cost them precious seconds. If they were caught now it was over regardless of if he saw the danger coming or not. Instead he brushed his thumb against Gabriella's cheek and offered a tense smile.

What little magic he could still spare was interwoven carefully into the box. Along side the wards and protective charms. Just enough to keep it comfortable and safe for the trip ahead, to make it unimportant to anyone who put their eyes on it.

It was small glamour, not unlike the type he knew his little brother loved to use in his disguises. Glanni didn't like using this brand of magic too much, it left him feeling unclean despite his rather colourful history of crimes. But it would be just enough for this. Just enough to trick the mind when someone looked at this box. It was just a box, why pay it any attention? If it made sound or seemed odd, what did it matter? It was only a box; best to get it back to its owner.

The suggestion to return the box to its owner and ignore it was strong enough to prompt action but not enough to give the person in question reason to find their own thoughts questionable. The final touch of magic came with the lid, he'd have to seal it shut by conventional means and with a hint of magic.

He couldn't risk it being opened by anyone that wasn't one of his family. Even then it was no easy task. Besides himself and Robbie – with considerable effort mind you – only Ella could open it. He had to make sure she wasn't trapped if something went wrong. The box was rigged to all but blow the lid off if Ellie kicked it.

This was….this was as safe as he could possibly make it.

Now he couldn't do anything more. They were out of time and so no matter how much it pained him or how much he agonized over the safety of the little girl he'd put into the container – it was time to go. He didn't need the prompting of incoming footsteps to know that.

"Remember sweetie, not a peep."

Glanni closed the box.


	12. Chapter 12

_I'm sorry for the delay. I've had some problems recently so this took longer than I would have liked._

 _Thank you for all your comments, it helps direct me a bit and I'm relieved to hear some of you got something positive out of it so far._

 _I don't know if these issues will clear up soon, but I'm going to keep trying to post regularly._

 _Thank you for understanding._

…  
…

Getting Ella to agree to their conditions was… well it was just a _little_ more difficult.

That first morning after Sportacus left Ella back in Robbie's care was perhaps one of the more problematic moments for Robbie. The onslaught of discomfort and anxiety that assaulted him when Ella began to stir was nothing short of humiliating. As the girl began to stir in bed, alerting Robbie to her gradual return to the world of the waking, Robbie could not for the life of him decide what emotion to go with.

Perhaps he ought to play it off. If she was surprised to be back, he could pretend he hadn't even noticed she'd been gone. Make up some long winded excuse for why she might as well stay. How it was more of a hassle to have her gone than to just give her a room.

But no. He'd given Sportakook his word that he'd drop the fibs and there wasn't any way he'd be able to justify one so obvious. Begrudgingly Robbie ruled out that possibility. That didn't mean that he was any fonder to the idea of openly expressing how relieved he was that she was back safe and sound. It would be like pulling teeth, telling her how worried he'd been. So honesty was off the table as well. He ended up going around in circles

What was he doing? Fretting over what a mere child would think of him, absurd!

In a huff Robbie ended up walking the length of the lair, just as an excuse to let off some steam. Eventually that nervous energy rolled over into words and before he knew it he was speaking out loud. Giving voice to all his frustrations, Robbie's near instant stream of thought to vocalization was interrupted by a small, all too familiar tug, on his pants.

Freezing on spot, Robbie cringed knowing that Ella must have heard everything he'd been saying. A string of angry snarls mixed in with a few disarmingly honest words. Reluctantly he twisted around to stare down at the girl. She was disheveled from sleeping, clearly the type to turn in her sleep and if his memory served him correctly – Ella was also a kicker when she slept.

Staring back up at him with those huge, stupidly innocent eyes of hers, Ella sized her uncle up in one quick glance. He wasn't exactly sure what it was she saw in her uncle in that once over, but whatever she found caused Ella to give one stern nod before looking back up to his face, expression steely.

Then she opened her mouth and beset Robbie's heart. "It's okay. I came back, see?"

Robbie was on his knees, both arms around his niece before the final word had finished leaving her mouth.

In the end he didn't have to pick any front to uphold. Robbie didn't make up half-truths to hide how worried he'd been, and he didn't need to overexert himself telling her just how welcome she was here. Instead he was able to convey almost everything in that one small hug.

He felt Ella smiling into his shoulder as she tried wrapping her little arms around his neck in return.

For a while that was the extent of the morning's troubles.

Neither niece nor uncle felt inclined to do much of anything the following hours. Ella occupied herself exploring her new room with only a few comments about where her papa would stay when he came back to them. All of which Robbie flat out refused to acknowledge or offered up some vague dodges. He wasn't any where near ready to tackle that topic.

In the brief moments Ella would emerge from her new room, some request on her mind each time, Robbie found himself marveling at how quickly she could turn a room into her own. Anything pink or purple was quickly commandeered by the child until she'd made herself a playroom of sorts.

However he noticed it was also distinctly lacking in the stuffed toy department. Oh sure, she'd swiped some of the less dangerous inventions and deceives to entertain herself with – none of which he'd actually seen her take. Glanni's influence again. But there was nothing in her room that was actually designed to be kid friendly besides that lavender bear of hers. Which Robbie had come to rather dislike.

If he could not scowl at his real brother, the bear would have to be his replacement.

Resolving to do something about the gross lack of children's playthings, Robbie approached his workbench while Ella was making a nest of sorts out of her bed sheets. He'd never been much for crafting family friendly things but Robbie was determined to make something passable. Something even that pedantic elf wouldn't be able to find fault with.

His first attempt backfired rather spectacularly and resulted with Ella sitting upside down on the ceiling for the better half of an hour while her uncle panicked down bellow. Perhaps a balloon that never deflated was asking for problems. However he had not expected it to take Ella up to the ceiling, he didn't expect it to be so much stronger than she was heavy.

Ella seemed to think the whole thing was rather amusing but her uncle, after his near seventh heart attack, decided they'd just have to find a way to pop the blasted thing and never speak of it again.

The second was not much better. Something simpler, he'd thought, something far less dangerous. The result was rocking horse that was supposed to be more akin to a real pony, something she could ride on easily. His experience with the robotic dog ought to have been caution enough.

Oh it worked just fine. Better than fine actually.

It took Robbie a whole night of tinkering to get the Pony Pal 4000 up and running. His only indication of it having been a whole night was the fact Ella had gone to bed and returned before he'd left the work bench. Too invigorated by a night of cake and no sleep – Robbie didn't even hesitated before presenting his fine work to the still sleepy Ella that morning. Admittedly the stunned smile that broke out onto her face at the fight of the toy was almost enough to make his pending headache durable.

What was less encouraging was the pony itself.

Once turned on it was supposed to behave like a quiet filly. Something she could trot around on and feet nuts and bolts or whatever Robbie got around to designing it to eat. It couldn't actually eat of course, but the illusion was all that mattered, it was a novelty after all.

Except it seemed this Pony Pal 4000 had absolutely no intentions of being mild or well mannered. The second Robbie's back was turned the thing kicked him with both it's hind legs, sending the startled villain sprawled across the floor.

Now, he loved Ella, but he could definitely see her trying not to snigger at his misfortune.

What was worse was everything else the pony did. It made an ungodly racket and wouldn't be saddled no matter what Robbie or Ella did. And yet, his niece was enthralled by the monstrous thing. It's free spirited she wailed in its defense. It was a good pony, don't shut it down, it just needed a friend. He'd brushed such ridiculous notions aside, intending to pry the thing apart with a screw driver, but then the threat of big ol' tears sprung into Ella's eyes and Robbie fled from the possibility as fast as was humanly possible.

Thus his house became host to yet another unfriendly, unmanageable, ungodly robotic animal. Never again! No matter what, no robot cats, or birds, or fish – no more! A dog and a horse were enough thank you very much.

"But it stays in your room!" Robbie shouted as both Ella and the beast vanished from sight no doubt about to break something else.

Grumbling curses all the way back to his workbench, Robbie dragged out some blank blue prints and decided to start from the top. No more robots he decided. Something simpler. What did children like that was neither dangerous nor noisy?

A spin top?

No good, he'd gotten a little too overzealous with the design and now the spin top was more of a drill than anything else. It could tear right through the lair floor and it looked content to keep on ripping away at soil until it hit the other side of the planet. Scrap that idea.

A rubix cube?

How he'd managed to create a device that kept changing up its sides, rules and design the moment someone tried to touch it was anyone's best guess. Also no good.

How about a jack-in-the-box?

Robbie barely even got through the construction phase before realising the thing he was making was more than enough to scare an adult and would no doubt lead to Ella crying from fright. That went in the junk heap before he even showed it to her.

Maybe a tea set?

This one was a near miss and it had nothing to do with Robbie this time. He restrained himself, not giving it anything unusual or remarkable no matter how much the droll design bothered him – it was better to be safe this time around. But when presented to Ella the first works out of her mouth had Robbie abandoning the idea all together.

He never wanted to hear about his brother's love for poisoned hot beverages every again and he was not about to encourage Ella to follow her father's behaviors.

Finally Robbie found something. Finally he had something that wouldn't explode, leave dents in the earth's core or kick him at any given chance. A dollhouse.

He was exhausted by the time he brought the deceptively simple looking model house into Ella's room. Having come to expect her uncle's sporadic appearances with new toys, Ella enthusiastically leapt off her bed to hurry over to see what dangerous good he'd crafted this time.

"Ha, jokes on you." Robbie told her tiredly, beginning to feel the effects of going a weekend without sleep. "This one is perfect."

Ella looked at her uncle like she thought he was being silly again, a look he'd become painfully accustomed to seeing over the past few days. "They're all perfect." She told him in a very matter of fact way. Robbie scoffed.

"Liar." He wouldn't let that dampen his good mood as he sat cross-legged on Ella's floor. It was one of the few rooms in the underground lair with carpet, he was reluctant to keep carpet in given how often it was singed or left exposed to clumps of snow. Ella's room was to be an exception.

Curious to see what he'd made her, Ella inched closer and when Robbie glanced down at her skeptically – she grinned back up at him. Huffing in amusement Robbie leant forward to unlatch the doll house and open it up for her to see inside.

Despite having heard Ella's little gasp of amazement countless times the past few days, it never failed to warm his heart just that little bit.

He watched as her eyes racked over the insides of the dollhouse, staring at the little details into every piece of decoration. It was not easy to remain silent as Ella studied every inch of the box, every time her fingers shifted like they wanted to traverse inside Robbie held his breath, waiting for the moment she would reject it or scoff at the dollhouse. She wasn't too old for this sort of toy was she? It wasn't poorly made was it? What was wrong with it, there had to be something wrong – there was always something wrong with what he made—

"You…you see these here?" Robbie began, unaware of the waver in his voice. "These dolls? I made them to move around. Not much, I didn't want anymore kicking or biting robots in this house. But they'll do little things, walk around, sit down to eat dinner, give hugs…just family things?" What would he know about that? Suddenly it felt silly to even pretend he knew what real families did.

Robbie was now aware of Ella's eyes on him and the words began to come out more quickly. "Not that I know anything about that of course." He scoffed, voice shooting up an octave. "It's ridiculous, who needs dolls that play with themselves? No, no, I'll just take this way and—Ella?"

He was surprised when Ella's little hand latched onto his wrist, stopping him just a few inched short of grabbing one of the toys. The wooden toy in question was staring up at his hand in a way that almost suggested fear but Robbie hadn't put that much magic into them, instincts like self preservation would be beyond them. Still, that flinch looked deceptively fear driven.

Ella was staring at him like he'd gone mad with those huge eyes of hers. "Don't." She told him sternly. "Don't take it away, they're perfect. They're beautiful."

Once she felt her uncle's hand go lax under hers, Ella turned her attention back to the dollhouse, reaching inside to gently rub a finger against the head of the doll that had just recoiled from Robbie. The motion was almost like a little pat and when the doll didn't pull away, Ella's face warmed into a beaming smile.

"They're perfect." She told him quietly and Robbie almost believed it. Almost believed he'd done something right.

No fault, no sudden explosion or mistake. A plan that went right through and through. That was…a new feeling.

The workbench was not touched for the remainder of that Sunday and Robbie only realised how many hours of sleep he had snubbed when he looked through his periscope. More out of force of habit than any real need to do so, and found the sun had set on the final day of the weekend.

Not the worst of his sleeping offenses but not the best either. It was a bad habit to get so swept away in his tinkering but Robbie hadn't had a good reason to be making things in a long time.

Granted his eternal struggle to best Sportaflop was motivation enough most days. But he hadn't had an all-encompassing focus on building for two years, and crafting toys for his niece was a far more pleasant experience than his frantic trap designing days had been.

However, this now meant that they were out of weekend days, which in turn meant once the sun, poked back up over Lazytown it would be a school day. He had not actually thought to address the matter with Ella.

Foolishly Robbie assumed Ella to be of no concern in this department. She was fairly agreeable as far as children went and he saw no reason to expect this to be any different. So when the hero came atapping the next morning, intent on helping Ella to her first day of school and likely just as determined to make sure Robbie kept up his end of the bargain - Robbie wasn't at all fussed.

Turned out Ella was a little less nonchalant about the whole thing.

"You're sending me _where_?" Ella hissed after being informed by her uncle that the hero was here to do his civic duty and educate the masses.

Evidentially she was not at all impressed by Robbie's decision to try being a responsible parent. Or at least allowing a blue elf to fulfill the responsible part of the gig. "You're the one that said school was for losers!" She reminded sharply, pointing at him in a way that any other adult would have chided as rude. Robbie on the other hand just pointed right back, with the other hand firmly on his hip.

"Yes well, you're going anyway." He told her sternly, not actually having a good rebuttal and he did not at all like the stubborn expression setting into the young girls features. "Sportaflop is going to make sure you learn about numbers and english and playing nice and all that nonsense and you're going to like it, missy."

Sportacus was waiting up by the hatch, no doubt getting a little concerned by the extended lack of response down below. Robbie could only hope he'd entertain himself with some of those ridiculous exercises he was so bleedingly fond of rather than try to force his way down to see what the hold up was.

"I don't want to!" Ella protested angrily and Robbie would give her points for going all out on the cliché as she stamped her little foot down. "School is full of boring books and boring people. I don't want to waste my time with that!"

Robbie opened his mouth to shoot off a quick 'tough luck' sentiment, but bite his tongue a second before the words got free.

Sometimes it was easy to get caught up in a moment and forget that Ella – while alarmingly shrewd at times – was still just a child. One that clearly had a few firm mindsets drilled into her by his brother, sometimes when her words felt too old or out of place Robbie could hear her parroting Glanni. School was likely another thing she'd learnt to shun from an early age.

Admittedly Robbie's own bad mouthing of the education system hadn't done anything to combat this mindset.

"Look here, squirt." He began again, going down a different route to his initial retort. "You want to stay in this lovely here lair?" She nodded enthusiastically and Robbie nearly smirked, she might be clever but she was still fairly easy to trip up with roundabout tactics. "You want to eat cake and be the best sidekick a villain could have? Well, do you?"

To her credit Ella did look suspicious now but nodded all the same. "Then you remember what rule one is?" Ella's shoulders tensed, her body going stock still as the words registered.

A rule.

Rules were important and her uncle had a whole set of his own. A set that seemed to grow at an alarming rate, her father didn't tend to add any beyond the first five but Robbie must have been well into the fifties zone by now. Ella was ashamed to admit that most of the more recent ones went over her head, most getting lost in her memory as less important with each one. Usually Robbie just made up whatever rule he liked to remedy a situation – he forgot them just as quickly as she did no doubt.

But the first set he'd laid down she still remembered very clearly.

Glumly Ella turned her gaze towards the ground, kicking a little bit as if the small amount of fidgeting would put off the inevitable. Still her uncle was waiting, looking like he expected an answer and were she a little older she may have noticed the look in his eyes was one of victory.

Only he would be given a child that put so much stock into rules.

"Rule number one – Robbie knows best, we all listen to Robbie." Ella finally muttered, the words so badly mumbled that they almost became unintelligible. Had Robbie not made the rule himself he might not have understood what she was trying to say at all.

Satisfied Robbie nodded with a small snort, looking entirely too pleased with himself. Only Robbie could look so proud to have run verbal circles around a child.

"I'd tell you it'll be fine, it'd be fun even but oh it would be a lie." Robbie crowed dramatically, unconcerned by Ella scowling at him from under her bangs.

"Uncle…" Ella groused, watching as Robbie had far too much fun with his monologue.

"It'll be boring, painfully so. You'll be so bored you'll be begging to come back home. But alas, off to school you go." He went on, doing seemingly pointless little turns and paces of the lair floor while chatting away with his finger pointed skywards. Wholly unaware of Ella trying to genuinely get his attention.

"Uncle." She insisted but Robbie was still rather engrossed in his own boasting.

Which was precisely why he hadn't a clue that Sportacus had apparently grown tired of push ups and slid his way into the lair. Expecting to see the pair still sleeping or in some way avoiding going to school, Sportacus was only mildly surprised to find Robbie off on one of his tangents.

Robbie went on his merry way; listing off some of the horrors of school, and the homework – lest they forget the _homework_ – he didn't even notice Sportacus smiling in his direction. Somehow Robbie's antics had never failed to amuse the town hero, although he did occasionally find himself wishing Robbie would partake in a few less dangerous pastimes.

Ella had seen him the moment he arrived, eyes lighting up in excitement with words all but bursting from her, only to glance at her uncle and decide not to say anymore. She'd tried to tell him but he wasn't paying attention, it wasn't Ella's fault if he was surprised later.

Smiling in a mischievous way that Sportacus found reminiscent of her uncle, Ella crept over to where he stood, careful not to catch Robbie's attention. Following suit Sportacus crouched down and kept his voice hushed so as not to tip him off. That rant he was on seemed very important, best not to interrupt him.

"So, school today?" He asked, voice full of encouragement seeing as Robbie seemed to be going in the exact opposite direction.

Ella's eyebrows knitted together tightly and she looked rather miserable just thinking about it. "Do I have to?" She asked quietly and Sportacus had to stifle a small laugh, still keeping his voice down so as to avoid Robbie hearing them.

"School is important." He reminded her gently. "But it doesn't have to be bad, you can have fun there. Make new friends?"

He saw the way Ella became even more uncomfortable at the mention of the other kids, he'd expected as much. "I know meeting new people can seem frightening, Gabriella. But do you remember what I told you about people in town?"

"They're all very nice." Ella repeated under her breath. "But what if…" Struggling for the words Ella looked up towards the ceiling and then to the ground at least twice before finally settling on looking at Sportacus. "What if they don't _like_ me?"

The urge to gather the young girl up in a hug just to chase away the very idea was almost overpowering, but Sportacus settled instead for a kind smile. "They are going to love you." He promised, only after speaking the words wondering if he was in a position to say such a thing. Now he had the girl's trust riding on him again, if it all went wrong it would be all his fault. But Sportacus believed in this town, in the kids and he knew they could be great friends.

This seemed to do the trick and Ella managed a small nervous smile before her uncle finally realised he wasn't being listened to. Setting out to rectify the situation he turned and saw the blue elf crouched on his floor. Robbie very nearly jumped out of his skin. "Sportacus!" He yelped shrilly, too surprised to even spit out one of his many nicknames for the flippity hero.

Sportacus glanced up, perfectly unruffled by Robbie's shouting and smiled brightly. "Morning Robbie." He replied just as happily and Robbie's insides twisted in protest. It was always so confusing when Sportacus greeted him warmly.

Growling Robbie flailed out of his alarmed position and stalked over to the hero and his niece. "Knocking gone out of style has it?" He seethed and realised his mistake before Sportacus even answered.

"I did knock."

"Not the point."

"But-"

"Enough questions!" Robbie snapped sharply and bent down to take his niece by the shoulders, pushing her back over towards his workbench. "Now school is going to be dreadful, so you're going to need these."

Lingering just a little behind the two, Sportacus cautiously peered at the lumpy backpack that Robbie retrieved for Ella. It rattled and looked incredibly heavy as he set it down on Ella's shoulders. The young girl seemed to marvel at the thing even while Sportacus cringed at how terrible it was, and purple of course.

Crouched by Ella's back, with his hands inside of the horrendous bag, Robbie began muttering under his breath about protection of boredom repellents. "This." He said pointedly, pulling out something that looked suspiciously like a slingshot. "Is for class. Your little arms aren't going to be good at throwing paper balls, so use this."

"Wow, wow, wait up a moment there Robbie." Sportacus quickly broke in, taking the thing off of Robbie. He frowned at the device, it was shaped like a slingshot certainly but there were far too many blinking lights and whirling parts included. Did they even _do_ anything? "You can't take this to class."

"The tricky one does." Robbie countered with a huff of irritation and Sportacus nearly sighed. He'd have to talk to Trixie about that, it wasn't a suitable toy for the kids to carry around. Robbie sent him one more scowl for good measure before giving up that argument and returning to the backpack.

Each thing he produced had Sportacus more frantic. Bubble gum was not on the table – more importantly don't encourage Ella to put it _under_ the table! Sticky notes were supposed to be reminders, not encouragement to kick people. Oh for heaven's sake Robbie! No, you can't send her in with permanent markers to draw on the bathroom walls.

This went on for something like ten minutes before finally they'd narrowed the bag down to something Sportacus deemed acceptable and Robbie begrudgingly admitted wasn't terrible.

Mostly drawing supplies, Sportacus reasoned creativity could be a good thing as long as she still did her work, and Robbie figured she could draw something mean about the teacher if she got bored or doodle on the desks. There was some food included and Ella looked surprised when Robbie allowed Sportacus to include fruit into that lunchbox. Robbie refused to watch him put it in, thinking that if he didn't see it maybe it would somehow become less disgusting. Spoiler – it didn't.

There were moments where Sportacus relented to Robbie's demands as well. Ella would be sent to school with far more bandaids and bandages than any child would require but it gave Robbie some peace of mind. The final snag they hit was with protection.

"She's going to school, Robbie." Sportacus reminded nearly reaching his limit with patience. That was a rarity but if anyone could find it, Robbie would be the one.

"Exactly." Robbie snipped back, gesturing wildly to his tiny niece. "What if she needs to fight someone?"

"No one is going to fight." He replied, rightfully horrified by the mere idea. "They're good kids, Robbie."

"Yeah and she's my niece. You think that doesn't mean someone? You think good kids like people like us?" They were scaring Ella. Sportacus only noticed this when he realised that he was a little scared as well. Scared of where ideas like that would spawn from, why Robbie was so adamant that his kid take something to protect herself to school. Why he looked so worried when he thought neither of them were watching.

He was preparing her like she was about to enter a warzone and Sportacus had to put a pin in that idea immediately.

Cautiously he glanced down at Ella who was watching the pair of them uncertainly. Looking ready to once again try escaping from the idea of school. Then he gently touched Robbie's arm, the small contact causing the man to at first jump and then train his expression into an indignant glare. "Robbie, a word?" He tried gently and it seemed Robbie was about to refuse until he too caught sight of Ella's expression.

Grumbling Robbie allowed Sportacus to take them both aside, leaving Ella to look through the bag she'd finally been given. Now mostly danger free.

"She's going to be okay." Sportacus said the very second they were out of earshot. "School is a safe place for her."

"Oh you would say that." Robbie sneered, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Did you even go to school Sportaflop? Is that a thing you know anything about?"

Well…not exactly. Sportacus frowned, unable to say he had ever attended a real school. All of his training came directly from family, the closest he came to organized education would have been his first encounters with the other numbers. Even then he'd just been trailing after his father and brother – not really the focus of their attentions. But Sportacus knew this town and he'd been to their school – so had Robbie for that matter – they knew it was safe.

And yet Robbie still looked like he was going to wrap up Ella in bubble wrap given the chance.

"Robbie." Sportacus said instead, voice dropping low into one that dripped of sincerity. "I promise you, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to Ella."

He could see the debate raging behind Robbie's eyes. Watched as the promise sank in and Robbie began to decide how deeply he'd buy into the idea. Robbie struggled with any form of trust and this must have been quite the leap for him.

Apparently more than Sportacus realised because when Robbie spoke next it actually sent a small jolt of alarm down the elf's spine.

"You willing to swear on that?"

Sportacus was not sure if Robbie really meant for those words to carry the implication they did. In the past there had been perhaps two or three times where this implication would hang over their heads. On each occasion Robbie would retract the words with some flippant comment and they'd continue one as normal.

No deal made.

But today the silence persisted and Sportacus gradually came to the realization that Robbie wasn't going to take the words away and dispel the implication. Not this time. He knew what he was saying, knew how the crackle of magic felt around them, awaiting one of them to agree to a verbal contract. He knew, he knew exactly what he was doing and Sportacus wasn't sure he was ready to approach the topic head on.

Days early when this implication had fallen over them at the word 'favour' Sportacus had brushed it aside. Thinking very little of it, but things had changed a bit. Thoughts of Ella's words in the tree house came back to him and Sportacus knew he could not be as flippant with his words as he had been.

But…this was Robbie and they were talking about Ella.

"I am." Sportacus answered firmly and for a moment Robbie startled.

He hadn't been expecting that. For a second the sheer stupidity of the elf had baffled him. They'd never talked about what they were, never needed or wanted to go into that conversation – but surely he knew what it was to owe a favour or make a deal with anyone like Robbie. The elf might not know exactly what he was, but he knew Robbie could call deals in and yet, he'd still agreed.

Eventually Robbie's shock faded, being replaced with something akin to satisfaction. A promise of this magnitude comforted him, Sportacus would have kept his end of any bargain even if there had been not a shred of magic between them. That was just how this man was – a hero.

"Fine." Robbie grit out, giving in finally. "Fine, fine, _fine_. I let you take my Ella to that dreadful place and you make sure she comes back perfectly safe and sound. Deal?"

"Deal."

 _Done_.

Robbie lingered behind as Sportacus turned and walked back over to Ella, his pace suspiciously lacking the usual jumps and flips. But his smile was still dazzling when he crouched down by Robbie's niece. His voice chiming in that wonderfully wholesome brogue of his, the English he used far less broken than it had been in the beginning. Robbie watched from a distance as he spoke to Ella and saw the way her eyes lit up excitedly.

Part of him, the most familiar part of his person, bristled and scoffed in irritation but behind that, buried just under his distaste for the elf there was relief. For all Sportacus's annoying quirks – he would no doubt look after any child. Even a child sharing rotten blood with him.

Still he nearly protested when Sportacus helped the girl up onto his shoulders. He thought it dangerous but having been carried by the hero so many times himself, he ought to have known better. Robbie couldn't know that this had become something like Ella's favorite way to get around. Sportacus certainly had no issues with this arrangement. Ella was light enough and the little excited smile she gave when offered the ride was more than incentive enough.

"I'll have her back in no time, Robbie." Sportacus called back to the still quietly seething. "Say bye to your uncle."

"Goodbye uncle Robbie!" Ella called gleefully echoing Sportacus as she waved at her uncle over his head. Reservations of school momentarily dashed as Sportacus inspired a good mood. He had a knack for that.

Huffing Robbie tossed back a halfhearted wave. He didn't bother glancing back towards the tunnel out until both Sportacus and Ella had vanished through it.

He promised.

Everything would be fine. There was nothing to be scared of, no reason to even think it anymore. She'd be fine – bored out of her mind but still fine – so Robbie could just occupy his time with things he wanted to do. Napping, eating, building – no reason to worry about anything. He wouldn't touch the periscope even once. Robbie would just keep his focus anywhere else.

She would be fine.

He'd _promised_.


	13. Chapter 13

With that lair behind them and Sportacus making a conscious effort not to jostle the girl on his shoulders too much with his usual method of jumping around town – Ella finally began to feel anxiousness settling back in.

The hero insisted she wouldn't be disliked and her uncle had sent her with things to fight off boredom – but still she worried. If her papa knew his girl was going to school he might have just had a fit. School was no place for a self-respecting Glæpur, and yet she was off there all the same.

A tiny, somewhat bitter part of Ella thought it was punishment enough for her father taking so long to get there.

Where was he?

Without even realising it Ella may have needed the distraction of school. Even as it filled her stomach with unpleasant butterflies. The saying did not suit she decided, they must have been buts fluttering around in there. She'd fallen silent, hands tight around Sportacus's neck as Ella allowed her doubts to begin spiraling out of control.

Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to beg the hero to take her back to the lair. She didn't care if she ended up never knowing how to do math or learn the names of countries. She'd be just fine watching Robbie work and playing with the toys he made her – she didn't need any silly education.

Even through her sulking Ella knew that train of thought was juvenile.

The town was sunny again, the typical jolly sight of the colourful town failing to cheer Ella up this time. A small comfort was the thought of what school might look like. Ella had always imagined school to be a dreadful place, but she doubted such a place existed in Lazytown.

"Sportaflop?" Ella mumbled, not thinking anything of the way Sportacus momentarily paused. She didn't think the nicknames were all that bad, if Robbie called the hero by them they couldn't be bad. Sportacus resolved to try and ease her out of the habit, especially in case it lead to her giving the other children nicknames. "Will you be there when I meet the other kids?"

"Of course!" The chipper way the hero answered comforted Ella somewhat. She couldn't imagine him lying with that voice.

Still distantly she remembered being told not to trust honeyed words. They were the most dangerous.

It was easier to ignore those thoughts now. Especially when Sportacus's smiling face was in sight, all thoughts of suspicion and wariness just melted away when the hero's eyes sparkled like that. Ella though it was nice that her uncle lived around such wonderful shinny people, she would have liked it if her father had surrounded himself with similar people.

"That is, if you want me there?" Sportacus amended after a moment of though, not wanting to crowd the child. But Ella only tightened her little arms around him with a mute nod. "Then I'll be there."

Satisfied with this promise Ella settled down on the hero's shoulders and quietly took in the sights of the town as they walked. As the school's main building came into sight, just beyond the stretch of the courtyard, Ella was pleased to see she was right in thinking it would make the sunny exterior of the rest of the town. It was bright and inviting and not at all as horrible to look at as she'd been led to believe.

With that one small relief tucked away curiosity began to overrule her reservations and Ella was peering more actively over Sportacus's head, trying to get a better look of everything. She knew they were late, schools opened at nine and they were about fifteen minutes beyond that point – her uncle's fretting had caused them to be late. However, if Sportacus had just allowed her to bring the original bag he'd packed they may have only been five minutes late.

Pausing on one foot at the school's entrance, Sportacus tipped his head back to check on Ella just one more time. "You ready?" As her answer Ella gave a single stern nod, looking as though she was gearing up for a fight rather than her first days of school. Like a bandaid seemed to be her mentality and Sportacus took this as their best possible approach.

Never one to forgo the deep end approach to life, Sportacus took the door and swung it open with not as much as a knock of warning. Had they been in any other town this might have startled the children gathered inside and their teacher. But the moment they saw the flash blue the group knew who had come to visit.

"Good morning." Sportacus chimed cheerfully, being met with a chorus of answering greetings. "Sorry we're late." He added, casting a look back at Ella who seemed caught between hiding behind his head and wanting to keep her chin up.

Miss Busybody was not at all confused by the child on the town hero's shoulders. The mayor had been rather talkative about the new child and Bessie was always the first to hear anything in town. She smiled warmly as she approached Sportacus and the girl. "I think we can forgive some tardiness for today." She allowed. "Why don't you come introduce yourself, dearie?"

Ella hesitated, looking down at her escort once for some guidance. Sportcus responded with an enthused nod and helped Ella down off of his shoulders.

Once on her own two feet Ella began shifting her weight uneasily and fiddling with her hands. Miss Busybody led her to the front of the classroom, and for a moment it seemed Ella was going to wilt under the stares of the other children.

Then her gaze settled on Stephanie's face and it seemed like a switch had been flicked.

Ella's hands stilled and her back straightened, the expression of unease vanishing with little more than a thought. The only remaining tell of her nervousness was her feet, tapping a small rhythm, likely without Ella even aware that she was doing it.

"Alright children." Miss Busybody began in her usual bubbly trill. "From today on we're going to have a new student in our class. Gabriella, isn't it?" She asked, and Sportacus was a little concerned when Ella didn't correct Bessie. Instead she gave another stiff nod and continued to stare straight ahead at the other kids.

Oh no. That was _not_ a friendly look.

It seemed Ella had passed right from nervous to hostile in her approach to the situation. She stood ridged, hands clasped together tightly with an impassive expression slapped on her face. At least if she'd responded how her uncle might have she'd be more animated, but now Ella stood as still and unresponsive as a doll.

Concerned Sportacus watched on, hoping Ella would begin to loosen up once introductions were finished. Bessie, now a little unsure of how to deal with the stoic child, grappled for some way to ease the introduction process. "How about you tell the class a little something about yourself, Gabriella?" She suggested with a sweet smile, truly trying to give the kids the best first foot forward.

"No thanks." Bessie hadn't been expecting such a flat refusal from the young girl. "Don't want to." She looked like such a sweet child; to hear such a cold voice from her was alarming. Had Sportacus not already experienced that tone first hand he might have been just as shocked as Miss Busybody.

Despite this Bessie still tried to encourage Ella, although her attempts came out a little less confident this time around. "Go on." Bessie urged gently. "Don't be shy, dear."

Ella took one more look at the other kids, mouth twitching downward as she scowled at them, looking as though she'd rather be doing anything. Rather be wasting her time with anyone else.

Not a good start.

The thin hope that she'd pull away from that surly atmosphere when she spoke was absolutely blown out of the water with her first words.

"My father says I shouldn't waste my time with everyday people. Commoners he says." There was an indignant squawk from Stingy's desk and Sportacus winced. "I don't want to waste my time." Ella muttered purposefully looking away from the other kids. Her foot beginning to tap just a little quicker with each word, nearing a frantic pace. "School is dumb. I'm better than this."

"That's not very nice." Trixie pointed out sharply likely having something nastier she wanted to say but being mindful of her behaviour around Sportacus and Bessie. Her own angry stare a near match for Ella's disgusted sneer.

Ella barely even turned her head back in Trixie's direction. "Whatever." She remarked coldly. "Nice is for stupid kids."

Okay, okay, this was fine, Sportacus thought anxiously. He could step in and say something positive. Something to get them on the right track. He just had to-

"No it's not!" Pixel protested immediately, Stingy and Trixie were quick to echo those words in agreement.

Then a quieter voice behind the older kids joined in. "I'm not stupid…" Ziggy mumbled, sounding genuinely upset by the thought. This did nothing to calm the other kids, Stephanie in particular looked distressed by Ziggy's sad tone. But she hadn't said anything yet while the other kids readily had things to say.

However it wasn't just Stephanie and her friends that heard Ziggy. Ella caught Ziggy's mumbled proclamation; her reaction was a little more unsettling. Tilting her head back in the youngest child's direction, Ella's expression twisted into something spiteful and she simply said. "Oh? You sure?"

"Hey, that's enough!" Stephanie was up now, hands down on her desk as she addressed Ella directly.

"Guys, guys. Let's just calm down for a second…" Sportacus tried to step in but found his attempts to sooth the situation were effortlessly overwhelmed by the children's anger.

"You're not going to make any friends like that." This must have been exactly what Ella was waiting for as well because suddenly the foot that had been tapping away rapidly slammed down in one stomp and the look of indifference was shattered by a snarl.

"What the hell would you know about it?" Ella shouted right back at Stephanie, completely ignoring the town hero's efforts to calm them. Her little hands balled into fists as the façade of calm came crumbling away when faced with the pink haired girl. "You're just a big bully. You might look pretty and sound nice, but you're the worst!"

Stephanie didn't say anything. Her spine had gone ridged and she stood stiff as a board. But it wasn't until she gave a little sniff that it became clear she was trying to fend off tears. Still clearly angry but now also about to be in tears, Stephanie didn't seem able to form any type of rebuttal, and in the silence Ella's own self-assurance left her.

The other kids were worrying about Stephanie now. Panicked, Ella looked between each of their faces before making the mistake of glancing at Sportacus. His was the worst, second only to Stephanie's teary eyes.

She had to escape; Ella couldn't look at those faces anymore.

"Who needs you guys and your stupid school!"

It had never been in the Glæpur nature to stay when things got rough and Ella was out of that classroom in seconds flat.

It was like a horrible loop she seemed to be stuck in, running away from bad situations that were all her own making. Twice in one week she's run away from a situation she couldn't dig herself back out of. A tactical retreat her papa might have called it, that's what he called it when a job when sideways and he had to back out.

Glanni never called it running away.

This time Ella didn't get far. Admittedly she didn't try as hard.

Instead of running to the safety of Robbie's lair or the tree house, Ella bunkered down behind the first wall she found and began to cry. The heaving sobs were not the most glamorous way to cry and Ella found breathing through them difficult. She was being stupid, this was stupid. She'd won whatever fight they'd had back there, clearly she had – so why should she be the one out on her own crying on the dirty ground?

Thinking that she wasn't the only one crying did nothing to stop her tears. In fact just picturing Stephanie's upset expression seemed to make the sobs all the harsher.

It was a horrible awareness that she'd done it again. How had she done it _again_? Why did this always happen? Ella didn't want to start fights with the kids, she didn't want to say nasty things or make pretty girls cry. She was just so scared and it just…came out.

Now she was out here on her own, crying like some senseless brat. Her first day and she'd managed to make a complete mess of it. Robbie was going to be so smug that he was right she just knew it and Sportacus… Sportacus was going to have that disheartened look again. He wouldn't even make it easier by being angry, no. He'd just be _disappointed_.

That was more than Ella could stand.

"Where are you papa?" She whispered into her arms as they curled around her knees, jamming them tight up against her chest. "Everything makes more sense when you're here…so why aren't you here already?"

Suddenly there was a sound, distant at first as the school doors swung shut, alerting Ella to someone else coming out into the courtyard. Ella jumped violently when she heard footsteps actually approaching her location. Hoping she hadn't been overheard and now wishing she'd hidden a bit better. She expected to see Sportacus, fully geared up to be disappointed in her, but instead the person that inched around the other side of the wall wasn't a hero.

Come to think of it the shuffling steps that approached her and the wall didn't have a single jump to them, they almost dragged in fact. That should have been indication enough that the person that came looking for her wasn't Sportacus.

Instead Ella found herself looking up at another kid. The little one she'd mocked earlier. A fresh wave of guilt and nausea rolled over Ella, her reaction was instinctual.

"What do you want?" She snapped, voice positively venomous. The words would have had more bite to them were she not still struggling past the lump in her throat.

Ziggy flinched and curled closer to the bricks, looking timidly at the crying girl under the shade of the wall. "You…" He gulped and tried to speak without the squeak in his voice. "You looked upset."

"So?" Ella snipped back. It was a strange thing to be able to hear how unfriendly she was, regret it even as she spoke and still be unable to stop herself. "What do you care?"

"When a girl is crying…it's a hero's job to cheer them up." Ziggy mumbled, the words nearly lost in how quietly he spoke. Ella opened her mouth to shoot off something else just as mean as her first comments no doubt, but hesitated. Whatever she'd been about to say gradually faded from her mind and they were left staring at one another.

A few seconds passed and neither child seemed ready to speak or at the very least not sure what they ought to say if they did. Then slowly Ziggy edged around the corner of the wall. Cautious in his approach but clearly determined. He looked terrified of the girl but rather than turn back and go inside, leaving Ella out on her own, Ziggy bravely sat himself down next to her.

Surprised Ella looked at Ziggy as though he was crazy. He clearly had to be, if he was willing to sit next to her after she was so mean to him. But Ziggy only put his hand over Ella's and waited.

The seconds dragged on until finally it sank in that Ziggy wasn't going to speak. Ella thought this must have been difficult for him, he seemed like a chatty sort of kid. But he stayed resolutely silent, offering some kind of comfort even though he clearly had no idea what he was doing.

He still tried.

Ella's expression softened.

"Do you…" She began slowly, wiping away the remaining tears with the back of her hands. "Do you want to be a hero?" She asked quietly. In an instant Ziggy's expression brightened into a smile and he nodded eagerly with a happy chirp of "yes!". The pure enthusiasm got a little giggle out of Ella. What a weird kid, she thought.

But weird was not necessarily a bad thing.

Slowly Ella let her arms unwind from around her legs as they uncurled, stretching one back out as she rest her chin on the other, looking at Ziggy more kindly than she had anyone else in that classroom. "What would your name be?" She asked and then clarified. "If you were a hero."

"Oh!" It was as though his feelings had never been hurt in the first place with the way his whole body became animated with his words. "I was thinking Amazing Ziggy! Or- or what about Super Ziggy? I like that one too! But a hero is helpful and h-h-humble, so maybe helpful Ziggy?"

Ella listened while the boy began to trail off on this thought, clearly having had this conversation with himself plenty of times before. It was strange to sit next to someone she'd only a short time ago bullied. Even stranger to be sitting with them and smiling along with their excitement.

"What would your superhero name be?" Ziggy broke out of his ramblings suddenly. His large, eager eyes falling on Ella. She was thrown by the question and the friendliness that Ziggy offered her.

"Me?" Ella frowned, pointing to herself. "I…well I wouldn't be a hero." Ziggy looked horrified by this, but Ella only laughed with a small shrug. "I'm not a good girl." The smile she wore became more glum by the second. "I'm mean. I bully people. I'm not nice…rotten." She finished miserably.

"No you're not!" Ziggy rushed to reassure Ella but then remembered how that scene in the school hour had gone. "Oh. Um…" Struggling Ziggy looked desperately at Ella. "But you don't have to be mean! I bet you can be super nice if you try."

"Too lazy." Ella replied dryly although she didn't really believe that excuse.

Ziggy didn't seem to think this was a problem. "Sportacus can help you." He told her with a confident nod. "We were all lazy before Sportacus showed us how much fun we could have outside." Despite herself Ella began to listen, feeling a glimmer of hope.

"Really?"

"Really, really!" Ziggy exclaimed, leaping up to his feet with a beaming smile. "You just need friends! So, want to be my friend?"

Those words nearly knocked Ella flat on her back. The fact he could say them so easily and look so earnest while doing so left her reeling. "It can't be that simple." Ella whispered, staring wide eyed at Ziggy.

"Why not?" Ziggy laughed brightly. "We can be great friends. We can play together and we'll always look out for one another. Sleepovers and games too. Oh! Oh! I'll show you how to be a hero if you like? A hero never hurts anyone and friends never hurt friends." Ziggy was rattling off promises that all sounded too good to be true and Ella struggled to process them all.

That was impossible. Friends weren't that easy to find. People didn't want to be friends with a criminals brat. It just…that's not how the world worked. This wasn't how their world looked. "You're lying."

"Nuh-uh. Cross my heart." Ziggy refuted, looking horrified at the suggestion. "I'll prove it." Then with a serious look as he held out his hand, pinky raised. Ella regarded the offer skeptically not quite understanding at first. "Pinky promise."

Reluctant at first, Ella continued to stare at Ziggy and his offer distrustfully. "You promise?" She asked and Ziggy hummed a yes with a quick nod, not even stopping to consider the question. Ella hesitated a moment longer before slowly stretching her hand out, linking her pinky with Ziggy's gingerly.

"It's a deal."

All at once Ella felt a little better. A little warmer and just a bit less scared. It was only by a fraction but suddenly the sting in her eyes left from crying and the soreness of her throat from sobbing didn't seem so bad. It couldn't be that bad if she had a friend.

This would be her first.

"You know." Ziggy began carefully. "Friends also tell each other the truth." At first Ella wasn't sure what he meant, Ziggy helped her by explaining. "You're not really mean are you?"

Ah, right. The school fiasco. Ella's expression fell and she stared at the ground, guilt and regret making it difficult to meet Ziggy's eyes. "I didn't mean to." She whispered, the confession a painful jab to her pride. But Ziggy was kind, he wanted to be a hero and…he was a _friend_. "I just…sometimes things just come out. I can't help it."

It had been so scary. Standing up there with all eyes on her. Ella wanted to be strong, wanted to be like her father and so she'd fallen into old habits. Bitterness was the easiest way to hide how nervous she was – but as always it had gotten way out of hand. She thought maybe she could keep it controlled this time, but then she'd seen Stephanie sitting there and any shred of confidence she'd had vanished.

Ella wanted to apologize for pushing Stephanie.

Instead nasty words had come out instead.

"I was scared." She admitted with a sad sigh. "Now no one is going to want to be my friend."

"Not true!" Ziggy was suddenly taking her hands and Ella was left to cry out in alarm as he helped pull her up onto two feet again. She was a little taller than he was, but Ziggy's enthusiasm spurred her into moving without Ella even realising it. "You're my friend now, Gabriella." He declared with a grin.

Ella jumped at her full name. "U-um…if we're friends just Ella is fine." She mumbled, a little surprised by how embarrassed she was just to ask someone to call her by her nickname. She'd never had to ask another kid to do that before.

But of course Ziggy took it in stride, taking this as a sign that their budding friendship was off to a swimming start. "Don't you worry, the fantastic Ziggy will help you make friends." Ella could only hope that she didn't sink like a rock when that part came up, but so far she was just able to keep afloat. If only because Ziggy was helping her.

Trying to fight the smile that threatened to spread across her face, Ella simply asked. "Fantastic?"

In response Ziggy pouted. "Not that one?" He asked before shaking it off, the smile returning easily as a new idea popped into his head. "Friend Ziggy!" He decided, giving Ella's hand a little tug. This time she didn't protest and allowed him to begin leading her back towards the school. "I, the wonderful Friend Ziggy, will help you make as many friends as you want."

"As many as I want?"

"Yep. Friend Ziggy will also show you how to play fun games and say nice things." He continued happily, perhaps unaware that he was no longer pulling Ella's hand so much as he was just holding it. Her fingers linking with his in what must have felt perfectly natural to someone with lots of friends, but for a girl like Ella was very unusual.

Unusual and wonderful. The small contact chased away any remaining doubts and fears. "So you'll be my hero?" She ventured and Ziggy positively glowed. He so rarely got to feel like a real hero, but this must have been pretty close to how Sportacus felt.

Trying to look cool in front of his new friend, Ziggy didn't let Ella see how red his face was. "You bet ya!" He said instead, pushing their way back into the school building.

However the door met with another body, blocking their path. Ziggy yelped an apology, he hadn't seen the other kid standing there until the door was open. Just as well Ella hadn't either or she might have tried to hightail it right back out of there.

"No, no…" Stephanie brushed off Ziggy's apologies with a small smile, however her words slowed and trailed off when she noticed Ella standing behind her friend. "I ah…"

Not a muscle in Ella's body would move. She couldn't even force her jaw to unlock to allow her the words she needed to say. Ella wanted to say sorry, even as the pride instilled in her by her father screeched in protest. But she had no chance to even do so when Stephanie looked at her, effectively freezing Ella in place.

Thankfully her 'hero' was there and once he snapped out of it, noticing the two girls just staring at one another, Ziggy lurched into action.

"Stephanie, Ella didn't mean to upset you!" He exclaimed quickly, pleading Ella's case as desperately as he would his own. That level of compassion was baffling to Ella but she didn't say a thing about it – not about to damn herself by saying something stupid at that exact moment. "She's really, _really_ , sorry." He continued, not sure if he ought to be encouraged by Stephanie's silence or not. "Aren't you Ella?" He tried, looking back at the statue of a girl behind him.

At first Ella didn't even recognized that she was being spoken to. It wasn't until Ziggy gave her hand a little squeeze that Ella jerked back into the world of the living. Her movements were robotic, one foot set down jerkily in front of the other until she was standing in front of Stephanie.

"I…" Talking was no easier and Ella had to swallow that lump in her throat to even get the syllables out around her wounded ego. "I am very sorr-"

"I'm sorry!" Stephanie said suddenly, startling the girl in front of her. Equally surprising was the tight hug Stephanie pulled Ella into a second later. "I'm so sorry." She repeated desperately, the words going through Ella's ears and not registering in her head.

Once the damn broke, it all came flooding out and Ella had no choice but to try and keep her head above the water. She was pretty sure she definitely going to drown this time. "I said such mean things about your uncle. I promise I'm not a bully. I didn't know—I just wanted to be friends. I didn't know it would upset you. Please forgive me, I'm so, _so_ sorry."

This felt…backwards. Struggling to understand why the pink girl was apologizing was like trying to wrap her head around a riddle with every second word removed.

In a word – impossible.

Regardless Ella felt her hands twitching up, instinctively moving to return the hug. Then after a second Ella heard Stephanie sniffle again. "Please don't hate me."

That was all it took.

Ella's hands grabbed at the back of Stephanie's dress, hugging her tightly as a string of apologies began to fall off her tongue. They were both so sorry, and so stupid and it wasn't long before both of them were laughing just a little bit.

Giddy with a few tears still lingering the pair finally broke apart. At some point the other children had arrived. They were trying to make heads or tails of what they were seeing. Both Ella and Stephanie laughing and crying just a little bit.

As odd as the whole thing was, no one was getting the feeling it was a bad thing. Baffled by it all Trixie just sent a confused shrug towards Pixel and Stingy. Their answer was a mirroring expression of confusion.

Behind all of them, Sportacus was able to let out a heavy sigh of relief. He'd been taking a bit of a risk allowing Ziggy to slip away when he thought no one was looking. But Sportacus knew there was only so much he could do and so much he could force. If he demanded they be nice and make friends then none of them were really going to do it.

Maybe they'd pretend to appease his expectations, but there'd be animosity between them and Sportacus was not here to foster fake friendships or make orders of the kids.

So he'd let Ziggy follow after Ella, relieved that this time she hadn't gone far and there was no attempt to hide herself with magic of any kind. Ziggy was a good kid, kind and optimistic – just what Ella needed. Sportacus was thrilled with the results, although he still had that sinking feeling that he had failed in the initial introduction.

They still had a full day ahead of them, more than enough time to set things on the right path. Trixie and the others might need more of a chance to get to know Ella without any tension between them and there was no better way to do this than to play some games together.

Miss Busybody was more than happy to accommodate Sportacus in this. The kids were still young and while their studies were important, going by that small display it was equally important to make sure they were all safe and happy in their surroundings. The mayor had made it quite clear how concerned he was about Ella's well being and so Bessies was willing to give the kids a bit of an easy day. A sort of settling in day.

With that permission given Sportacus carefully approached the group again, catching the ends of a conversation between the kids. Stephanie, having successfully recovered and wiped the evidence of tears away, was telling the others that she knew what it was like to be the new girl in town. She was encouraging seconds chances and forgiveness – all things that made Sportacus's heart swell with pride.

On the other hand, Ella was offering up some timid apologies, most of which were quickly forgotten when the children were told who Ella lived with and natural curiosity took over. Trixie wanted to know if there were any cool traps Ella had seen in Robbie's lair. Pixel was equally curious about the local villain's gadgets. The pair nearly overloaded Ella with questions and Stingy's occasional comment about letting Ella stay in his town was not helping.

Sportacus had just come to the kid's attention as they began rattling off a few more pointed but standard questions. How old are you. What's your favorite colour? Do you like to sing? Do you like cake as much as Robbie?

"Alright guys." Sportacus spoke up, easily catching their attention. He noticed Ella shied away from him, looking guilty. He'd have to do away with that. "Have we all made up?" He questions, crouching down so he was closer to their height.

"Yes." Stephanie replied promptly. Hesitating for just a moment to look at Ella who had taken to tucking herself in behind Stephanie's back. Ziggy was not tall enough to really hide behind after all. "I think we can be friends."

"I'm sorry, Sportacus." His real name instead of a nickname, that was either a good sign or a very bad one. That was usually true of Robbie. "I…didn't meant to—and I…I just wanted-"

"Ella." He broke in gently before the girl could tie herself up in panicked words. Reaching out past Stephanie's arm he gently ruffled her hair. "Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes when we're angry or scared we do and say anything we don't mean. I know you didn't mean to upset the others. Did you apologize?"

"Yes."

"And did you mean it?"

"Yes."

"And have the other kids forgiven you?"

This time Ella had to glance at the other kids. Trixie huffed, arms crossed over her chest, looking annoyed that they had to make nice at all. "Yeah well…I guess we have." She muttered just before Ziggy piped up with a far more enthusiastic.

"We're friends now!" To which Sportacus smiled cheerfully.

Ella still looked hesitant but she'd shifted out from behind Stephanie just a bit. "So, that means all if forgiven. Now, how about we all play a game – it'll cheer us up."

This certainly got Ella's attention. The chorus of approval and excitement from the other kids was infectious and soon Ella was out from behind Stephanie all together, although Sportacus noticed she kept close to the girl's side. They might have had an incredibly rough start, but he hoped they might just grow close quicker because of it.

"What should we play first? I don't know many games." Ella had quite enough of hide and seek.

Thankfully Ziggy had a few ideas of his own. "Well, we _do_ have a soccer ball."


	14. Chapter 14

He wasn't going to spy on them. Robbie decided that much easily, he wouldn't spy because _clearly_ he didn't care. That would be ridiculous.

For someone who definitely, absolutely, one hundred precent, did not care – Robbie spent an awful lot of time thinking about the subject.

It must have only been two hours since Sportaloser took his Ella out to that nightmare of a school when Robbie developed his first noticeable tick. Sitting at his work station, looking far more put together than someone known for being as dramatic and sleep deprived as Robbie was should ever appear, he'd been doing just fine pretending to focus on his tinkering.

Honestly he was rather pleased to have been able to tick start that little hobby of his again. He wasn't out of practice thanks to all of his anti-sportacus devices and oddities, but he did find his hands tended to move a little too wide and quickly – unrefined in a word. These hands were more accustomed to big grand gestures and very haphazard designs; calling for delicacy again after all these months was no easy task. But he was getting there.

However, while the distraction was all consuming for those first two hours, by the third Robbie's foot had started to tap. Unnoticeable at first but when he began to wonder why his word area was suddenly jostling at regular intervals and found the culprits to be his own two feet – Robbie couldn't seem to stop noticing them.

Irritated but determined not to give an inch of ground to his traitorous mind, Robbie tried to fixate on his work. This became increasingly difficult as his foot kept on tapping, in short bursts of four at a time. Before long he wasn't actually seeing what he was doing as all of his concentration went to trying not to pay attention to his feet.

This went on for a further hour before the second tick developed.

Robbie only noticed he was periodically checking the clock after he'd done it the sixth time or so. This wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't been checking it almost every ten minutes on the dot, effectively dragging out the day. Realistically Robbie knew it was impossible for him to actually make the day longer just by watching the seconds trickle by, but it sure as hell felt that way.

Growling under his breath Robbie set his tools down, not having managed to get a single thing done since he first took notice of that damn tapping of his. Pushing himself up Robbie decided a new distraction method was in order.

It did not take long to exhaust them all. He tried food and when that alone did not work he attempted to combine it was some television but everything felt exceedingly tedious at best and aggravating at worst. Not to mention they all seemed to have something to do with school. Robbie had never doubted the universe disliked him but this was bordering on cruel and unusual punishment.

"This is stupid." Robbie remarked bitterly to the empty lair. Suddenly much emptier now he knew what it was like to have someone else frequenting it. "I don't care in the slightest! You can't prove anything." He insisted and was met with that usual heavy silence that just _felt_ jeering.

That silence persisted for about one whole minute before Robbie gave an inch and muttered, "Maybe just a quick look."

Just like that he was up. The sudden jerk of motion was perhaps the most animated Robbie would be all day unless he decided to try his hand at running Sportacus out of town today. Unlikely considering how fixated he was on that thing he absolutely, one hundred percent, did not care about.

Calling down the periscope Robbie immediately tried to locate the children at the schoolhouse. It was fortunate that today the periscope was cooperative and did not attempt to land on his head as it dropped down.

When he finally found them Robbie was relieved to see they were all inside. Sitting down and quietly writing something that would no doubt bore him to tears. But this was good. Sitting inside and writing was safe. How much trouble could the kids get to in there?

"I mean!" Robbie jerked upright, realising that his train of thought was in no way demonstrating how little he cared. "They can't make any noise doing that! Yeah, that's what I meant…yeah."

Despite this he still stole one more glance. Sportacus was there too.

This was surprising to Robbie although it really shouldn't have been. Remembering their little bargain it made sense that Sportacus would stick close until the day was brought to a close. Still it stirred something foreign in Robbie's chest seeing Sportacus minding the kids in such a subdued manner. Hell it left Robbie a little unbalanced realising Sportacus was looking after _his_ kid.

It was not…an unpleasant feeling exactly. Robbie tried to shoo it away all the same.

To the flippity fool's credit, he was able to keep up his painful need to exercise while also avoiding being disruptive. A few push ups and what looked like an exercise designed to play unholy strain on his legs as he sat up against the wall, legs bent with nothing to support him. Robbie's muscles burned in sympathy, or revulsion – Robbie couldn't be sure which.

Now satisfied that everything was fine, Robbie let go of a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and tried to return to his own day. A nap would help he was sure. A nap would eat away the hours until this day was over and he wouldn't have to spend so much energy trying not to think about it.

A nap it was.

Settling down into his orange chair, making a point not to look at the clock or the periscope anymore. Instead he thought about how nice it would be if his eyes stopped aching from lack of rest and how little he had to worry knowing that blue elf was around to keep things from spiralling out of control. Those two thoughts were a great comfort to Robbie and without them he wouldn't have even had the slightest chance of sleeping.

Fortunately this did manage to successfully complete half of Robbie's desires. It did manage to pass a few hours, although he spent the entire nap uncomfortable. Tossing and waking on occasions only to blearily take note of how much time had passed since his eyes had last peeled open.

During the fleeting minutes he was well and truly asleep, Robbie had the misfortune of dreaming. None of these dreams ended up being coherent and when Robbie jerked awake with a start the memories of whatever had scared him out of sleep slipped away instantly. He was left with the unsettling feeling of being scared but not quite being able to remember what exactly had scared him in the first place.

Robbie did not try hard to remember. At best he'd discover the usual sorts of nightmares people talked about, falling or seeing faces in the dark. At worst he'd recall dreams of running, of being chased. He'd rather not remember that, would rather not start evading sleep just to dodge those dreams.

He did not try.

This uncomfortable almost-sleeping pattern continued for a few hours and Robbie was at his wits end with awaking terrified only to fall back into a light, not nearly satisfying, slumber only to repeat the process all over again. Finally, as he wrenched his eyes back open, feeling nauseous and more fatigued than when he had started, Robbie resolved to not close his eyes again.

Shrugging off the weight of an uncooperative sleep was challenging and Robbie spent a few minutes just letting his world spin back into focus as he sat up. Once the floor stopped tiling up at odd angles Robbie was free to direct attention to trying to drag everything back into focus. This took a bit longer and even once Robbie decided he could see well enough not to bump into things his vision was still blurring around the edges. Phantoms of dreams he didn't remember lingering at the corners of his eyes, occasionally making him take a second glance only to find empty space where he'd briefly anticipated seeing something red standing.

Clumsy was the word for the process of pulling himself out of a poorly thought out sleep. He knew that the sickness he felt and the ashen taste in his mouth were all just symptoms of a nap gone wrong and not actual illness.

It would clear up with little difficulty given enough time and something to waste away the taste – but for the time being he felt wretched. Which did nothing to help calm him when he did finally manage to shuffle his way back over to the observation deck and found that things were not at all how he had left them.

What was _his niece_ doing outside with a _soccer ball_ under her foot?

 _That's it._ Robbie thought to himself, both too horrified and furious to allow rational thought the time of day. _Today is the day I am going to kill that Sportaflipping idiot._

…  
…

Ella was singing when she came home.

This time she walked on her own two feet, skipping and kicking at the ground on occasion as she repeated the same little wordless tune a number of times. With one hand dragging her school bag, which she didn't seem to be aware she was even doing, and the other neatly clasped in Sportacus's hand, Ella returned home in much higher spirits than she'd left in.

Sportacus couldn't be more relieved. Actually, he couldn't have been prouder of the kids. Pride was a rather natural feeling when the kids were involved.

Admittedly the day hadn't gone perfectly and Sportacus was now painfully aware that he had a glaring blind spot when it came to safely and calmly handling fights between the kids – but at the end of the day it all seemed to have worked out. Walking Ella back home rather than carrying her seemed to be a sort of sign he'd succeeded in some small way at least.

They were still growing and Sportacus had to remind himself sometimes that they were still prone to the same problems as all kids. Just because they were enthusiastic and well behaved most days did not mean they couldn't fall victim to greed or jealousy. They were certainly not immune to insecurity either.

That's just how human children were. How most children were. But they could also be kind and curious, and show a whole range of qualities that seemed lost in adults at times. Most of all children could be incredibly accepting. They saw the world in a way human adults just couldn't and this was – among other reasons – why Sportacus loved them so much.

So he was not surprised that by the end of the day the kids were getting along. Not without problems here and there but they were still warming to one another.

Soccer had seemed like a good idea, after they'd all finished up with some history lessons. Most of which Sportacus tuned out while working off some anxious energy by doing push ups. He was only allowed to stay if his obsessive exercising was kept quiet, so as not to distract the children.

He made it work.

Ella, of course, hadn't known how to play. Which Sportacus had definitely known going in but he let the surprise sink in for the other kids and just as he'd hoped they all jumped at the chance to teach her. Even Trixie who still didn't seem to like Ella being there, had been keen to show off just how good she was at the game by teaching Ella. Sportacus knew he'd have to talk to her about that habit of pushing her own limits just to show off one day, but for today it was harmless enough and Ella did genuinely seem impressed by just how far Trixie could kick a ball.

Far enough that Sportacus had to get himself up onto the roof to get it.

Encouraging Ella to actually play was pretty hard. At first, Sportacus had worried because she seemed to be panicking again, and he had learnt that when Ella panicked she fell back onto what he could only assume was a mimicry act of her father. Parroting words and attitudes he taught her. Needless to say these approaches were not welcome on the school playground, so Sportacus tried to keep her comfortable and confident.

Once the initial anxiety faded, Ella was left just a touch nervous. Looking at the worn soccer ball like it was going to bite her. Sportacus didn't have to step in this time at all however, Ziggy had been there, more than ready to offer support and encouragement. The eventual kick Ella gave the ball was far from skilful. She seemed to just throw all her weight behind it and thankfully managed to send it flying a good distance. They'd teach her about technique and aim later, it was enough that day just to see how her face lit up in unbridled excitement knowing she _could_ kick it.

After that things went smoothly.

Rules were introduced and with Sportacus as their referee the game began. Ella had a surprising competitive streak once they started. She wasn't a big fan of the actual physical activity and Sportacus was sure she was going to quit a few times, but then Trixie would steal the ball away and suddenly Ella was right back at it. Losing did not seem to sit well with her.

Neither did a draw, which was what was eventually called.

Ella was frustrated and after a small huff to Ziggy, she managed to gather the courage to ask if they could play again. The look of surprise on her face when the other kids agreed was a little heart wrenching. Knowing she expected to be turned down. But the games continued and before long everything felt like it was as it should be.

"How is your knee?" Sportacus asked Ella gently as they walked up the path towards Robbie's not so secret lair entrance. "You sure you don't need another piggyback ride?"

The small tumble she'd taken on the playground had left Ella with a dirt smudge on her cheek and a scraped knee. Nothing to cry over according to the girl herself, although at the time she'd been a little upset by it. More embarrassed that she'd fallen than actually hurt. Sportacus wanted to make sure it was not still hurting her ego.

The positively beaming grin Ella tossed back up to him was assurance enough.

A few scrapes while playing games with friends were good for the kids, although Sportacus knew he might be a little overprotective at times. He had to let them make their mistakes and play a little rough from time to time or they'd end up reliant of him. If that happened they might get reckless, expecting that he'd always be there.

He'd like that to be true but…

"I'm fine." Ella chirped, breaking away from her song for a moment to answer him. To prove her point she did a little jump, hopping across imagined lines and cracks in the road. Sportacus let her go on ahead, smiling idly to himself as she skipped and danced. She was in a good mood and so the day could be marked a success.

What a relief.

Then as she was dancing Ella began to sing again. She'd fit in with the other kids and their songs, although it was obvious that dancing was her strong suit. It wasn't a bad signing voice but occasionally the notes rang too high or broke apart when Ella wasn't paying close attention to them.

It wasn't until Ella actually began to use words instead of humming the song that recognition hit Sportacus. He knew that song.

The sudden clarity of that nearly stopped Sportacus in place. Ella was far enough ahead of him now that she didn't notice her escort suddenly freezing midmotion and continued on her merry way, more words joining the song. Sportacus couldn't immediately place the feeling that settled over him when he recognised the song fully.

There was iciness to the emotion that made him think it was dread for just a moment but it left him feeling a little silly. The song itself was harmless and not all that creative. A simple list of numbers and a purpose, not unlike another nursery rhythm he'd once heard the children singing. Really there should be no reason this surprised him, it was not at all unlike the other songs children could learn.

So why was it so jarring to hear?

Then the final verse and line came again, only just audible given their distance and that same iciness coiled around Sportacus.

"and ten, for when you're ready to start again." Ella hummed merrily, a little spin and giggle following the line. Only to see Sportacus had fallen behind. Confused Ella stopped her song and waved to Sportacus. "Are you coming, Mr. hero?" She called back the good mood still obvious in her cheerful tone.

"Ah, coming!" Shaking his head to try and put it back in its right mind, Sportacus ran to catch up with Ella. The girl had gotten surprising distance between them, already pulling herself up the ladder to Robbie's hideout.

Unlike Sportacus, Ella did not seem terribly fussed about requesting entry. It may have just been a child's lack of forethought on the matter of house etiquette or it might have been that Ella felt at home here. Enough that knocking was no longer required. Instead she simply tried to pry the hatch open, struggling with its weight until Sportacus came to her aid.

Once it was open Ella was already scrambling down, giving Sportacus little time to even make sure the hatch was well and properly up. He chalked up her energy to excitement, no doubt having all sorts of things she wanted to tell her uncle about school.

Likely with a little bit of bragging that it wasn't as bad as he said included in that mix.

That was fine. Robbie didn't think school was really as bad as he had made it out to be. Probably. Maybe. The jury might still be out on that one actually…

With a small amused huff and roll of his eyes Sportacus set out after Ella. He was certain it would be okay to do so even though they had not strictly requested access to Robbie's lair. He'd thought it was perfectly acceptable to be returning with Ella in his care, except the moment Sportacus entered the shoot he was hit with a wave of energy that was rather unpleasant.

It prickled at his skin and his crystal began to glow just a bit. Dim enough that Sportacus wasn't concerned it was about to alert him to any real danger to the citizens, but noticeable enough that it might just be warning _him_ to be careful. That was…unusual.

Now a little tentative about this, Sportacus continued down the rungs of the ladder until he set foot in Robbie's lair. The moment he did so the feeling escalated, becoming an all-out assault on his senses. Momentarily thrown and at a loss for words Sportacus tried to make sense of what he was feeling while simultaneously attempting to fight the goose bumps breaking out along his arms.

Apparently Ella didn't feel any of this shift however and gleefully rushed into the central work area of the lair, calling her uncles name happily. "Robbie! Robbie!" She jumped a few times, demanding the attention of her uncle who Sportacus had not immediately noticed. Which again was odd because Robbie was just _standing_ there. Arms crossed, back ridged with his eyes narrowed on Sportacus.

Now he'd been glared at plenty by Robbie specifically. But this glare felt just a shade shy of being murderous.

Never before had he felt as though a child was the one protecting him, but Ella was still there demanding Robbie's attention and the moment his eyes broke away from Sportacus he felt a wave of relief roll over him.

In an instant Robbie's demeanor changed. He went from staring near literal daggers at Sportacus to crouching down in front of his niece, hands quickly brushing over her shoulders and arms. It took a second but eventually Sportacus realised that Robbie was looking for injuries. Ella seemed more frustrated than confused at first, annoyed that her uncle wasn't recuperating her excitement but then Robbie let out a heavy sigh that sounded relieved and Ella's irritation just drained right out of her.

This would not be the first time her uncle or father had done this, checking to see if she was hurt. Ella was trying not to be impatient, trying to understand that they were only concerned – but there was nothing wrong with her! She wanted to tell Robbie all about school, tell him all about this wonderful new game they played and he was busy fretting over imagined injuries.

Finally Robbie met his niece's gaze and managed a sort of queasy smile, still reeling from his earlier panic. "Well?" He asked, giving her the enquiry she needed. "How was the day in hell?"

Again Ella's face lit up and she began to excitedly talk about the other kids. Sportacus kept a good distance, still able to feel the source of the unfriendly vibe from Robbie despite his being distracted.

As she spoke he noted that Ella got almost all the kid's names wrong with the exception of Stephanie and Ziggy and he was sure she did it on purpose. Just as well because it must have pleased Robbie judging by the amused smile on his face.

An expression that became far less jovial when Ella mentioned that she and the kids hadn't hit it off well. A topic that thankfully she was extremely vague about.

Ella had just moved onto how she thought Trixie had a slingshot that was far too cool for her when Robbie's eyes narrowed in on her leg and he let out a squawk that made Sportacus flinch.

Oh. Right…the knee.

"What is _this_?" Robbie nearly shrieked at Sportacus, upright in and instant and pointing at the nervously smiling elf.

He looked like there was nothing that he would have liked more than to advance on the elf and do…something. Honestly it was unlikely either of them knew what Robbie would actually do if he had approached Sportacus. For the hero's part he liked to think that Robbie wouldn't resort to physical violence, but the look in his furious eyes said that chance was slim.

Raising his hands in a fashion he dearly hoped was pacifying; Sportacus took a few steps forward. "Robbie, I-" Then he immediately backpedaled when that earlier feeling that had caused pins and needles became so heavy that it was nearly forcing the air out of his lungs. So Robbie was actually angry enough to influence the magic within his lair to turn against Sportacus. Okay, that was…exceptionally mad. Angrier than Sportacus had ever imagined Robbie being.

"You promised!" Robbie snapped and despite how livid the man actually was, he still somehow managed to sound somewhat childish with those words. "You _promised_ me Sportacus."

"Robbie." Sportacus tried again, not attempting to step forward a second time. "It's just a scratch."

"And we had a deal."

The words came out so cold and flat that for a second Sportacus wasn't standing in Robbie's lair anymore. He didn't even think he was looking at _Robbie_ anymore. Instead he was stranded, somewhere he didn't quite recognize with someone he might not have known as well as he thought he had. For a moment Sportacus was afraid.

Because he knew the repercussions. He knew the dangers of a deal broken and he'd taken it all the same. But he had been so sure that it was all fine,

Ella had been returned safely and while the day had not gone without a hitch – she was still safe wasn't she?

'The fine print.' Sportacus vaguely remembered his grandfather telling him as a child. Afi had been so talkative when it came to magic, even more so when it came to the magic of little and hidden folk. It was something of his specialty; fairies in particular had always sparked his interest. If Sportacus had to guess on where Robbie's magic spawned from he'd have guessed it was one of those. "It's all in the fine print," his Afi had said, "careful they don't tangle you up in it."

It was the games of little winged folk and forest dwelling seelie to trick and capture those foolish enough to make a deal without thinking it through. It was not impossible to best them at their own game, but of course, it was still _their_ game. But Robbie hadn't been playing it, surely not. The deal wasn't made in some underhanded attempt to trick Sportacus into anything – it was made because he needed the insurance that Ella would be okay.

It…well Sportacus thought that's what it was. He knew Robbie to be tricky by nature but he never believed him capable of any real harm.

Looking at his situation currently, he began to doubt that belief.

Feeling as though he was now in very real danger, Sportacus took another step back, now painfully aware of where he was. This was a territory. The territory of a currently very upset magic user that had a deal to bind him with. He was not his brother, to be in such a predicament was not a common occurrence for Sportacus. Magic wasn't even a strong suit of his – yet here he was, drowning in it.

"Robbie, please." Sportacus stressed the man's name, pleading with him to just calm down. "It's just a _scratch_. I promise it's okay."

"Look what good your promises are!" Robbie sneered, causing Sportacus to wilt a little bit under his gaze. "I should have expected as much! You heroes are all about pretty words, but when it comes down to it you're all just— _Ow_!" Robbie jumped sharply, the sudden movement breaking the tension in the air and freeing Sportacus from the constricting energy that Robbie's glare forced down on him.

Rubbing his arm and looking rightfully shocked Robbie glanced down at Ella, her hand still poised in a grabbing motion towards him. "Did you just _pinch_ me?" Robbie asked, both appalled and shocked by the sheer childishness of it.

Ella, wholly unrepentant, gave her uncle another little warning pinch and once again he yelped. This time putting some distance between himself and his terror of a niece. He ended up coming to a stop, sitting against his horrendous orange recliner. "Stop that!" He demanded shrilly, rubbing his sore arm with a little more dramatics than the situation actually called for. "What's wrong with you?"

"You're being silly." Ella chided right back, sounding just as aggravated with her uncle as he was with her.

"Silly?" Robbie gasped, aghast by the accusation. "I am not!"

"Are too!" Ella shot back and Sportacus had horrible mental images of this escalating into a genuine back and forth of those two arguments in an endless loop. Mercifully Ella wasn't done. "I'm fine, see?" To prove her point Ella gestured to her knee where a number of bandaids had been slapped on. All of those had come from Robbie's over packing. "You gave me bandaids and I used them. All safe and sound."

There it was.

Of course. Sportacus could have kicked himself it was so obvious. The deal had a requirement that apparently neither of them had factored in. Ella felt that everything was okay, that she was – in Sportacus's own words that morning – safe and sound. So the deal still stood to fulfil all the requirements. That was a massive relief, but it also meant that all of this was purely from Robbie's own anger.

Which in turn meant that Robbie might have been a bit stronger than Sprotacus had expected.

Begrudgingly Robbie looked over Ella again. Not yet willing to believe it was really alright but his niece was resolute, continuing to stare at him just waiting for him to break. And eventually he did just that.

All the tension fled from Robbie's body and he slumped forward with a grumpy sigh. Then, without lifting his head and still clearly sulking, Robbie dragged up his arm and made an inelegant gesture for his niece to come over. Ella on the other hand began to grin and was more than happy to join her uncle, shuffling down onto the floor next to him. She wasn't at all put off when he rested his hand atop her head, although she did voice some complaint when he ruffled her hair.

He mumbled something under his breath and Ella laughed, catching her uncle's hand in her own and giving a little squeeze. "You and papa are so silly." She said again and Sportacus could just hear Robbie muttering a disheartened, 'am not' but beyond that he didn't say anything else.

What was difficult now was the escape.

Sportacus knew he should go. He could still feel the air around him shifting unpleasantly, not at all pleased with the elf's presence. It had seemed to stomach him before this, but with Robbie's ire there came a new lack of tolerance for Sportacus. But he risked drawing Robbie's attention again if he did and…honestly he had a few new questions of his own.

The first being, do you know a song of numbers?

Because his niece sure did and Sportacus did not know to even begin approaching that topic.

But right now he knew he'd be pushing his luck if he stayed, let alone if he started needling Robbie's mind for information. Robbie seemed adamant that there was nothing unusual about Ella's behaviour or the strings of magic tied around her and the town. But Sportacus was beginning to become more and more unconvinced of that.

Sportacus tried to sneak away, not something he had much experience with. He'd just grabbed the first rung of the ladder when Ella's voice caused him to hesitate "Tomorrow I'm going to win at soccer too." Ella mused not realising that was going to set Robbie off. Sportacus could have guessed his reaction but still winced when Robbie made a choked sound of dismay.

"Tomorrow?" He whispered, horrified. "There's a _tomorrow_? There's more of this? Haven't you graduated already, one day is enough isn't it?"

Despite himself Sportacus turned to look back at the pair and noticed that Robbie's gaze was now completely void of anger. Replaced with absolute misery. Looking at Sportacus as if to beg him to somehow change the school system with just a word. Smiling apologetically Sportacus shrugged helplessly. In response Robbie sank back against the lounge with a loud whine of complaint, prompting more giggles out of Ella.

"Fine. Fine!" He groused with an angry huff. "Go and have fun in your stupid, unexciting school. I don't care at all. Why would I care if you spend your time in that boring place?" Once Robbie got going they both just sat back and let him go through the motions. Even Sportacus was willing to wait the hissy fit out, despite his every nerve wanting to get right out of that lair.

Once he realised they were indulging him Robbie began to simmer down with a scowl for both of them. Then finally he looked at Sportacus and muttered the words as though they were too painful to say any louder or clearer. "I don't suppose that deal of ours could be extended?" Part of Sportacus glowed, happiness blossoming in his chest as he thought that this meant that not only was he forgiven but Robbie actually trusted him enough to ask for that.

Another part of Sportacus wanted nothing more than to run in the opposite direction. Not daring to risk provoking Robbie again.

The two different feelings clashed and wared for the upperhand until finally Sportacus came to a compromise. "That's fine." He allowed with a smile. Robbie looked understandably surprised, peering at Sportacus like he'd lost his mind even though he'd been the one to ask. Robbie was a little less surprised when Sportacus added a hasty amendment to the deal. "Just a promise between friends."

Understanding dawned on Robbie's face and he nodded, not bothering to clarify in words the change to their deal. No magic this time, no contract or binding deals. But of course he was still compelled to say.

"No one said we were friends, Sportaflop."

Sportacus paused for a second, hands still on the ladder as he considered how to respond to that. Because…they were friends weren't they? Sportacus certainly thought they were and Robbie's behaviour had never really bothered him in the past. But he'd been given quite a shock tonight and now Robbie's declaration left Sportacus a little uncertain as to where they stood.

But finally he shrugged that doubt off and made to leave the lair finally, calling back a simple. "No one needed to."

…  
…

 _For the second time a letter had arrived in Busy City. This time it was not at all unexpected._


End file.
